11 '%.'%r<%.<1fc>'<%,-Sk>-^- -^Ik ^^'«»>'%.<%,vife><%,'^-%,'%,-%>'Sb,Q 

# LIBRARY OF rONGKESS. I 

# i 

* _ . _ . * 



f # 

I UNITKD STATl^:S OF AMERICA. |' 



AN EXCURSION 



THE MAMMOTH CAVE, 



BARRENS OF KENTUCKY. 



WITH SOME NOTICES OF 



THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE STATE. 



REV. R. DAVIDSON. 



LEXINGTON, KY. 

A. T. SKILLMAN & SON. 
1840. 



i 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 
1840, by A. T. Skillman & Son, in the Clerk's Office of 
the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



C. Sherman &. Co. Printers, 

19 St. James Street, Philadelphia. 






REV. ALEXANDER M'CLELLAND, D. D. 

AS A TOKEN OF ESTEEM AND GRATITUDE, 

TO BE MEASURED NOT BY ITS WORTH, BUT BY ITS 
SINCERITY, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

BY HIS FORMER PUPIL, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



It has long been the fashion to apologize 
for authorship ; a practice at once super- 
fluous, and open to the charge of mock- 
modesty. It is superfluous; because the 
pubhc will examine and judge for them- 
selves, and their opinion will neither be 
forestalled nor propitiated by prefatory 
confessions. It is, in addition, open to the 
charge of mock-modesty ; because no man 
should ask the community to read what he 
acknowledges is not worth reading ; while, 
on the other hand, the fact of his publish- 
ing is a proof that his real and ostensible 
opinion difler. 

These gentlemen would* be very indig- 
nant, were the public to take them at their 
word ; as Swift once treated a lady who 
1# 



VI 



was profuse in apologies for her dinner. 
This was over-done, and that was under- 
done, and she lamented there was nothing 
fit to eat. " If that be the case," cried the 
testy Dean, *' I'll e'en go home, and dine 
on a herring." Doubtless our apologizing 
authors would resent acquiescence, and 
appeal in a towering passion, with Field- 
ing, to Prince Posterity. 

The trick savours somewhat of coquet- 
ry, like the stratagem of Galatea, who hit 
her swain with an apple, and then hid 
behind the willows, but not till she had 
first allowed him to get a glimpse of her 
in her flight ; 

" Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri." 

Such literary coquetry never deceives ; nor 
can he who employs it succeed in his 
object, of beguiUng the pubHc into a high 
opinion, not only of his merit, but of his 
modesty also. 

The second of the two essays in this 
little volume, is a compilation of glean- 
ings ; some of them never before published, 



Vll 

and others newly arranged from various 
scattered sources, which, it is hoped may 
prove interesting to others, as well as to 
the writer. 

As for the first, it is readily acknow- 
ledged to be not unlike the famous treatise 
written by somebody, " de omnibus rebus, 
et quibusdam aliis ;" about every thing in 
the world, and a Httle besides. It was 
originally designed to furnish an hour's 
rational entertainment to an intelligent 
auditory, and if the public can derive any 
amusement from it, in its present form, 
they are heartily welcome. 

Should the more critical feel disposed to 
censure, I must only take refuge with the 
ingenious Montaigne, and borrow his vin- 
dication of the '^ leaps and skips,'^ with 
which his amusing volumes abound. With 
him, I must justify my rambles by the ex- 
ample of Plato, one of whose dialogues 
began with love and ended with rhetoric, 
and that of Plutarch, — high authorities, 
surely! — whose argument is stuffed with 
foreign matter, and is found only by acci- 



Vlll 

dent. " How beautiful," says he, " are his 
variations and froUcksome sallies, and then, 
most of all, when they seem to be for- 
tuitous and introduced for want of heed. 
'Tis the inattentive reader that loses my 
subject and not I; there will always be 
found some phrase or other in a corner 
that is to the purpose, though it lie very 
close."* 

The following Essays were originally 
read before two literary associations con- 
nected with the University of Transylva- 
nia, and were prepared in the intervals of 
professional duty. This statement will 
account for certain obvious peculiarities in 
the general structure, and occasionally in 
the language of both. Their publication 
having been requested, the writer has cho- 
sen the present as the most suitable form 
in which they shall appear. If the judg- 
ment of the public approve the step, he 
will not regret his determination; should 
it be otherwise, he has only to hope that 



* Montaigne's Essays, vol. iii. p. 279. 



IX 

at some future time, not far remote, he 
may succeed better in meriting attention, 
by a work of a graver and more solid 
nature, which he is now preparing for the 
press, and which, he trusts, will not be 
wanting in interest to the ecclesiastical 
antiquarian. 



AN EXCURSION \ 

TO ^ 

1 

THE MAMMOTH CAVE 



AND ■ 

THE BARRENS OF KENTUCKY. ! 



READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF ADELPH[ 

\ 
OF TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY, 

JANUARY 16, 1840. ' 



EXCURSION, ETC. 



Green River — Henderson — Tobacco trade — Colonel Hen- 
derson — Legend of Harpe's Head — Hopkinsville — Elk- 
ton — Education — Cumberland College — Russellville — 
Distinguished Citizens — Shakertown — Bowling-Green — 
Internal Improvenient — The Barrens — Flora — Mineral 
resources — Coal Basins — Cavernous limestone — Simi- 
larity to the geology of Palestine — Sinks— -River Cliffs — 
Illustration from Rokeby — Action of water — Examples 
— The Mammoth Cave — Name— Temperature— Salt- 
petre — Anecdote — Freaks of Nature — The Haunted 
Chamber — Indian Mummies — Bat Room — Cascade — 
Grotto— The River— White Fish— The Dome— The Bot- 
tomless Pit— The Zodiac— Star-Chamber— The Temple 
— Project of a hotel and omnibus discussed — Enthusiastic 
Visiter — Exit — Exhilaration — Dreams — The group of 
travellers— The White Cave — Gothic screenwork — 
The Organ — ^Laon's Fount — Stalactites — Concluding re- 
marks — Love of nature cultivated by Europeans — Its 
pleasures — The sentiments aw^akened — The sentiment 
of infinity — St. Pierre-^Stanzas froni Burns. 

Having occasion last fall to visit the Green 

River country, the writer of this article 

2 



14 

gleaned various items of information during 
the excursion, which seemed to him of suf- 
ficient interest to be recorded. The nar- 
rative has indeed sv^elled to a formidable 
size, but it is hoped its length will not be 
found wearisome. One thing must be 
premised, that as no notes were taken at 
the time, but all was committed to paper 
from subsequent recollection, there will 
probably be a few inaccuracies ; none, 
however, it is believed, of importance. 

It was in the early part of October, 
1836, that we first set foot in this interest- 
ing region. We landed a few miles below 
the mouth of Green River — so called in 
honour of the Hero of Eutaw. If this 
philological account be correct, as we were 
informed it was, and as is corroborated by 
the fact that the original settlers of this 
section were chiefly from North Carolina, 
then our modern usage of omitting the 
final " e" in the name, frustrates this well- 
meant intention of commemorating a dis- 
tinguished patriot. The present ortho- 
graphy creates the impression that the 



15 

river owes its name to the greenish tints 
of its singularly beautiful and pellucid 
waters, rather than to the admiration of a 
hero. 

The town of Henderson ^ at which we 
landed, is one hundred miles below Louis- 
ville, in a direct line, but owing to the 
windings of the Ohio, just double that dis- 
tance by water. At this place we spent a 
day very agreeably, and from the ac- 
quaintances we made, we judged the peo- 
ple to be intelligent, frank and hospitable. 

Henderson is a place of some age, but 
of a very unprepossessing appearance. 
This, we were informed, was owing to 
the circumstance that the land was held 
up by half a dozen wealthy individuals, 
who being urged by no necessity of for- 
tune, refused either to sell or to improve. 
The consequence was, that while a few 
merchants could realize a handsome in- 
come, enterprise and population were 
checked. The great staple of the interior 
is tobacco, and Henderson is the principal 
point from which it is annually shipped for 



16 

Liverpool and other ports. At from sixty 
to one hundred and twenty dollars per 
hogshead, this branch of commerce must 
yield a profitable return. 

Henderson is the county seat of Hen- 
derson County, and is so named in honour 
of Colonel Henderson, a man of uncom- 
mon sagacity, talents, and ambition, who 
about 1773 projected a proprietary govern- 
ment, in the southern half of Kentucky, 
with himself for its head, and actually 
convened a provincial assembly in that 
capacity. The State of Virginia, alarmed 
at his strides, stripped him of his authority, 
but indemnified him for his services as a 
pioneer, by a grant of two hundred thou- 
sand acres, or twelve miles square, in the 
locaHty of which we have been speaking.* 

As there was no mail-coach running on 
our route, we hired a barouche, at a very 
reasonable rate, and started in a due south 
direction. 

About twenty miles from Henderson we 

* See more on this subject, page 93. 



17 

passed a lonely spot called Harpers Head, 
and so laid down on the maps. The legend 
from which this spot has received its ap- 
pellation is a truly bloody border tale, 
and has furnished a fine field of romance 
to that popular and sprightly writer, Judge 
Hall. Never having read his work, I shall 
narrate the legend as I received it from 
gentlemen who had seen the heroes of the 
tale. 

It was about the beginning of the present 
century, or something less than forty years 
ago, that a couple of desperadoes of the 
name of Harpe, from North Carolina, 
broke from the jail at Danville, where 
they had been imprisoned for homicide. 
Accompanied each by a woman who 
passed for his wife, they fled into the 
southwestern section of the state. One, 
from his superior size, was called Big 
Harpe, while his brother was known as 
the Little Harpe. They seemed inspired 
with the deadliest hatred against the whole 
human race, in revenge, as was supposed, 
for their imprisonment. Such was their 
2* 



18 

implacable misanthropy, that they were 
known to kill where there was no temp- 
tation to rob. One of their victims was a 
little girl, found by herself at some distance 
from home, whose tender age and help- 
lessness would have been her protection 
w^ith any but incarnate fiends. Their 
steps were marked in rapine and blood 
as they passed through the country. The 
last dreadful act of barbarity they com- 
mitted was this. 

Assuming the guise of Methodist preach- 
ers, they obtained lodgings one night at a 
house on the road. Stagall, the master of 
the house, was absent, but they found his 
wife and children, and a stranger who, like 
themselves, had stopped for the night. 
Here they conversed, and made inquiries, 
incognito, about the two noted Harpes, 
who were represented as prowling about 
the country. When they retired to rest, 
they contrived to secure an axe, which 
they carried with them into their chamber. 
In the dead of night, they crept softly 
down stairs, and assassinated the whole 



19 

» 

family, together with the stranger, in their 
sleep, whose only fault was having pro- 
bably expressed their opinions freely about 
their characters ; and then, setting fire to 
the house, escaped. 

As soon as the horrid affair was known, 
a party of armed men, with Stagall at 
their head, started in hot pursuit, and at 
length overtook them. The w^omen they 
found attending to their little camp by the 
roadside ; the Harpes having gone aside 
into the woods to shoot an unfortunate tra- 
veller, of the name of Smith, that had fallen 
into their hands, as the women, less cruel 
than they, had begged that they would not 
despatch him before their eyes. It was 
this halt that enabled the pursuers to over- 
take them. The women immediately gave 
the alarm, and the miscreants fled in sepa- 
rate directions. The little Harpe, being 
the Hghtest, succeeded in effecting his es- 
cape, and never appeared in the neigh- 
bourhood again, although he was after- 
wards reported to be lurking further south. 
Big Harpe, refusing to stop when hailed, 



20 



Leiper, the foremost of the pursuers, raised 
his rifle, and shot him down. He dropped 
from his horse wounded, and when sur- 
rounded by the men, protested against vio- 
lence, and demanded to be taken before a 
legal tribunal, that he might have justice. 
" Justice, villain !" shouted the enraged 
Stagall, his eyes flashing vengeance, " you 
shall have such justice as you showed my 
wife and children !" then, drawing out his 
hunting knife, he buried it in his heart, and 
not content with that, cut off" his head. 
The head was then set upon a stake, which 
was planted where three roads met — the 
roads from Henderson, Morganfield, and 
Hopkinsville ; so that the traveller from 
any point, as he emerged from the ob- 
scurity of the grove, was met by the ap- 
palling spectacle of a human head, festering 
in corruption, and dripping in its gore. 

From this circumstance the spot has 
ever since gone by the name of Harpe's 
Head. 

The women were apprehended and ex- 
amined, but nothing appeared in evidence 



positively against them, and they were 
dismissed. As it was believed that their 
influence, so far from encouraging, had 
been exerted to restrain the cruelty of the 
Harpes, popular prejudice soon turned in 
their favour; and as they were not desti- 
tute of personal attractions, they were 
afterwards married, together with a sister, 
who accompanied them, and their poste- 
rity are probably now Uving in the neigh- 
bourhood of Russellvilie. 

As for Stagall, he had never borne a 
good character, and his excessive zeal 
and forwardness created new suspicions 
against him as an accomplice of Harpe ; 
whom he might wish effectually to pre- 
vent from betraying him, by a precipitate 
death under colour of vengeance. From 
this time his brow grew darker, and his 
habits more reckless, and he was at last 
shot over his cups by some one who had a 
grudge against him. 

From this place to Hopkinsville, the 
country was very broken and stony, the 
land seemed inferior, and the corn dwin- 



22 

died under excessive drought. Such was 
the scarcity of water, that it was with 
the utmost difficulty we could procure a 
scanty supply for our horses. The drought 
was protracted and severe in all parts of 
the state during the last summer, but es- 
pecially in this section. 

After two days of very unpleasant tra- 
velling, during which we passed over only 
about seventy miles, we reached Hopkins- 
ville. Here we spent a week very agreea- 
bly, enjoying the warm hospitalities of a 
society uncommonly friendly, unsophisti- 
cated, and sincere. 

Indeed, during our whole excursion, we 
were treated with a uniform and hearty 
kindness, that prevented us from feeling 
the embarrassment natural to strangers, 
and which we should be most ungrateful 
not to acknowledge with delight, and 
cherish in vivid remembrance. Those 
friends in particular, who received us with 
open arms at Hopkinsville, and whose 
company we shared in circumstances of 
unusual interest, unnecessary to be men- 



23 

tioned here, we shall ever " wear in our 
heart's core," and fondly indulge the hope 
of a reunion in some propitious hour. 

Hopkinsville is a very beautiful country- 
seat of about tw^elve hundred inhabitants ; 
and contains a handsome new court- 
house, the architecture of which is in 
very good taste; and several small but 
neat churches, two of which are furnished 
with organs, a degree of refinement very 
rare as well as very unpopular in Ken- 
tucky. Hopkinsville reminded me of an- 
cient Babylon, the circuit of which was 
said to be about sixty miles; for which 
geographers have accounted by suppos- 
ing that much of the space was taken up 
with gardens. So in this place some of 
the best houses are scattered at intervals 
round the edge of the town, and these 
suburban villas being often quite orna- 
mental in their style of building, and 
surrounded with trees and gardens, the 
appearance is very agreeable. Yet, even 
here, candour obliges us to add, a jealous 
agrarian might scent the incipient germs 



24 

of aristocracy, and shudder to find an 
anti-republican " West End,'^ known by 
the suspicious title of Quality Hill. 

The trade of Christian County, of which 
this is the chief town, is considerable, 
consisting of exports of tobacco, hogs, 
&c., amounting to several hundred thou- 
sand dollars annually. 

Leaving Hopkinsville with regret, we 
passed through the pretty little village of 
EMon, 

Elkton contains a flourishing female 
academy. This leads me to remark, that 
the indications of an anxiety to secure the 
benefits of a competent education in this 
section of the State, are very obvious and 
gratifying, and speak well for the tone of 
public feeling. Cumberland College at 
Princeton, was represented to be under 
the care of able men, and to be attended 
by a respectable number of students. In 
addition to this, it may be stated, that 
according to the Report of the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, just pub- 
lished, it appears that one-fourth of the 



25 



counties that are districted, or nearly so, 
lie in the Green River country. 

At Russellville, where we stopped for 
the night, we were agreeably surprised 
by a fresh instance of Green River hos- 
pitality, anticipating our arrival; and in 
the enjoyment of conversation, highly pi- 
quant and interesting, the hours wore 
pleasantly away. Russellville, though now 
eclipsed by Bowling-Green, was once the 
Lexington of Green River. Although, like 
Bethlehem, " little among the thousands of 
Judah, yet out of it have come Governors 
to rule the people." The number of dis- 
tinguished citizens who have begun but 
not ended their political career in Russell- 
ville is remarkable. 

The kindness of my esteemed friend, the 
postmaster of this city, ha^ enabled me 
to furnish the following list, comprising 
six governors, two attorney generals, a 
chief justice, &c. 

Ninian Edwards, governor of Illinois, 
Robert Crittenden, (acting) governor of 

Arkansas. 

3 



26 

J. Breathitt, governor of Kentucky. 

Jas. T. Morehead, do. 

A. M'Lean, governor of Illinois. 

Richard Call, governor of Florida. 

John J. Crittenden, United States Senator. 

George M. Bibb, Chief Justice. 

Col. Anthony Butler, Charge to Mexico. 

Solomon P. Sharp, Attorney-General. 

Charles Morehead, do. 

Frank Johnson, member of Congress. 

Judge Ewing, Supreme Court, Kentucky. 

Joseph E. Davis, do. Miss. 

James Boyle, major-general, U. S. Army. 

D. M'Reynolds, surgeon-general, do. 

To these distinguished citizens of Rus- 
sellville, I will take the liberty of adding, 
(though at the risk of offending his mo- 
desty, and of being called to an account 
for violating his express entreaties to the 
contrary,) the name of our worthy fellow- 
townsman, Joseph Ficklin, Esq., formerly 
Consul at St. Bart, S. A. and now the 
oldest, and probably most influential post- 
master in the West. 

The next day we passed through S/i a- 



27 

kertown, just midway on the road between 
Russellville and Bowling-Green. Like all 
their estabhshments, it was neat, orderly, 
and quiet ; but much inferior in extent and 
beauty to the Shaker village on the Ken- 
tucky river, which can boast some very 
imposing edifices. Although the Shaker 
community keeps up its numbers by rein- 
forcements of adults disgusted with the 
world, or driven by poverty to seek a 
friendly asylum; and by poor children 
and orphans, whom they get into their 
hands in various ways, it is more than 
suspected by those who have the opportu- 
nity of knowing, that the old fanatical 
delusion exercises but a small influence 
upon their minds. Few of them are now 
believers in Ann Lee, and they have un- 
happily, though naturally enough, become 
a set of infidels. Whether their having 
given up of late years, their evening 
dances, is to be considered as indicating 
a decay of zeal, we shall not undertake 
to decide. The Shaker community have 
lost several of their proselytes within a 



28 



few years ; some have been expelled for 
practices little becoming the vow of celi- 
bacy. One of their head men left them 
to mingle with "the world's people;" — 
while another crafty fox went oft' to try 
a new experiment, of " living for ever." 
What success he has met with, or whether, 
as in the case of his partner, it has already 
terminated through want of '^Faith,^' I am 
unable to state ; but if it has not proved 
more successful than his attempt to wheedle 
Congress out of a grant of land, in fee 
simple for ever, it is to be feared he is be- 
yond the reach either of our indignation 
or contempt. 

Boiding- Green is a thriving and hand- 
some town, which has very flattering pros- 
pects opening before it. A broad and 
elegant turnpike is in progress, connecting 
it with Louisville, and another connecting 
it with Lexington and Nashville ; and in 
addition to this, preparations for slack- 
water navigation are going on to comple- 
tion, connecting the waters of Big Barren, 
which skirts the town, with those of Green 



29 

River. Through these new channels, pro- 
duce of various kinds can easily find a 
nnarket, while merchandize will be more 
cheaply imported from distant quarters. 

Being now in the heart of the Barrens, 
and in the vicinity of the celebrated Mam- 
moth Cave, an extended description of 
this curious region, both geological and 
topographical, may be considered neither 
inappropriate nor devoid of interest. 

The Mammoth Cave, is situated in the 
southeastern corner of Edmondson Coun- 
ty, twenty-four miles from Bowling-Green, 
and about half a mile from the southern 
shore of Green River. This locality forms 
part of that extensive region called the 
Barrens of Kentucky, reaching from the 
Tennessee line to the Rolling Fork of Salt 
River, and embracing a large portion of 
the Green River country. This tract, ex- 
tending over several counties, was origi- 
nally styled the Barrens, not from any 
sterility of soil, for although the soil is not 
of the first quality, it is generally good; 
but because it was a kind of rolling prairie, 
3* 



20 

destitute of timber. While the central 
parts of the State were covered with fo- 
rests of heavy timber, or overspread with 
tall canebrakes,* the Barrens, with the 
exception of a few scattered groves along 
the water-com'ses, were clothed with a 
thick growth of prairie grass. The face 
of the country, however, presented great 
attractions to the botanist. With what 
enthusiasm have 1 heard the late Professor 
of Botany, in Transylvania,-]- descant on 
the topic. 

" In many a long and solitary ride 
through the Barrens of Kentucky," said 
he, has my labour been lightened and my 
spirits cheered, by the floral varieties of 
that interesting region. Here in one spot 
the ground was carpeted with the flame- 
coloured flowers of the Euchroma, and 

• Sir Walter Scott, with his usual felicitous descrip- 
tion, has hit it off in a single line of Marmion, 
" Kentucky's wood-encumbered brake." 

t Charles W. Short, M. D. now of Louisville ; a gen- 
tleman who is as estimable in private life, as he is emi- 
nent in his favourite walk of science. 



81 

there enamelled with the party-coloured 
blossoms of violets and trilliums. In this 
spot, from amidst a tuft of humbler beau- 
ties, the majestic Frazera shot up its pyra- 
midal head, crowned with wreaths of its 
peculiar beauties, and on that, various 
sumachs overhung the path, emitting from 
their clumps of fruit, a shower of acid on 
the traveller. Here at one point, would 
burst upon the view a sheet of water 
skirted with the numerous bright blue pe- 
tals of the pondeteria and decodon. and 
covered over with the purple flowers of 
the cyanus ; and then, at another was 
stretched before the eye a waving sea of 
gigantic grasses. In such a scene as this," 
continued the enthusiastic naturalist, "none 
but a recreant to nature, and undeserving 
its pleasures, could remain indifferent to 
the charms spread in such lavish profusion 
around." 

The destitution of timber in the Barrens 
was owing to the frequent burning of the 
prairie by hunters to drive out the game, 
by which means the young and tender 



32 

shoots were scorched and destroyed. The 
effect is still witnessed in the great prairies 
of the West, which are annually swept by 
prairie fires, and in which no trees are to 
be found, except in such wet grounds as 
could defy the progress of the flames. 
With the advancing settlement of the 
country, the prairie fires were gradually 
extinguished, and the young timber had 
liberty to grow. The consequence is, that 
tracts which were destitute of shade ten 
or twenty years since, are now covered 
with extensive forests of Black Jack, or 
scrub oak, an inferior wood indeed, yet 
capable of being converted to various 
uses, and which will no doubt be suc- 
ceeded in time by some more valuable 
growth. 

To the traveller in the fall of the year, 
the unvaried and monotonous drab of the 
foliage presents an extremely dull and 
dreary aspect, and an agreeable sensation 
of relief is experienced when he makes a 
transition to the brighter hues of green 
edged with yellow, of the beech woods. 



33 



The first settlers preferred the hilly or i 
knobby region, although inferior land, on ; 
account of the advantages of wood and I 
water ; but after the grant of the Legisla- j 
ture in 1800, of four hundred acres of 
land to every actual settler, many were 
allured to occupy the open country. Since 
that period, owing to the healthiness of 
the climate, the fine range for cattle, the 
facilities for raising swine, the culture of j 
tobacco, and the growth and preservation \ 
of timber, the reason of the appellation I 
" Barrens''^ is to be learned from the an- 
tiquarian alone. Mac Adam roads and 
slackwater navigation, are giving a new 
impulse to the trade and prosperity of this 
section of Kentucky; and the valley of ! 
Green River, with its handsome and thriv- ; 

ing towns, is rising every year in political 
importance, while it attracts the admira- 
tion of the traveller. To say nothing of 
the lucrative tobacco trade, nor of the ; 

trade to the South in Uve-stock, the mi- 
neral treasures of this region when fully i 
developed, will constitute an inexhaustible i 



34 

source of wealth. There are two great 
coal basins in the valley of the Ohio, one 
connected with the Upper Ohio, covering 
part of Ohio, the western part of Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland and Virginia, and seven 
thousand square miles of the eastern sec- 
tion of Kentucky, according to Mr. Ma- 
ther's Reports, to which I acknowledge 
myself largely indebted. The coal for- 
mation of the lower Ohio embraces the 
valley of the Wabash in Indiana, and 
is continued into Kentucky ; extending 
through a dozen counties up the valley of 
Green River, from Henderson to the vici- 
nity of the Mammoth Cave. A brief ac- 
count of the geological structure of this 
section, will at once present a clear view 
of these extensive mineral resources, and 
throw hght upon the origin and formation 
of the great caves which abound there. 

It is familiar to all that the soil of Ken- 
tucky rests on a basis of limestone, but it 
may not be so well known, that the cha- 
racter of this limestone basis varies in the 
central and southern portions of the state. 



35 

In the central portion, the rocky strata lie 
in a solid and more slaty mass, and abound 
in fossils, marine shells, organic remains, 
bones of the mastodon, &c. This kind of 
rock is denominated great limestone, from 
its being found under a great area of the 
western country. The soil lies upon it to 
the depth of a dozen feet, and a portion of 
the lime and slate being dissolved with the 
soil, imparts that warm and forcing quality 
to which the vegetation owes its vigour 
and luxuriance, and the delightful region 
itself the title by which it is known over 
the world, as " the Garden of Kentucky.'^ 

The rocky strata, on the other hand, 
which lie beneath the Barrens of Ken- 
tucky, and whose general hmits are nearly 
coincident with the limits of the Barrens, 
occupy altogether an area of from five thou- 
sand to eight thousand square miles, are less 
slaty as a mass, less fossiliferous, and of the 
kind called cavernous limestone.* Like the 

* A striking geological resemblance between Ken- 
tucky and Palestine, the Valley of Virginia, and the 
Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania, has been noticed 



8G 

substratum of Florida, it contains many 
subterranean hollows, into which the 
streams often sink, and after flowing some 

by that accurate and observant traveller, Mr. Paxton, 
whose work displays throughout the happy application 
of his favourite science. There is an additional feature 
of resemblance which may be very properly mentioned 
in connection with our subject, viz. the frequent occur- 
rence of the cavernous limestone. It occurs no where 
but in this transition or flcetz formation. The Valley 
of Virginia is famous for its caves, Weyer's in parti- 
cular. In the vicinity of Carlisle in the Cumberland 
Valley, the writer has visited a cave whose windings 
are of considerable and unknown extent ; while in 
another direction is found a depression of the earth's 
surface, called " the Devil's Punchbowl," of the same 
nature as the sinkholes of Kentucky. As for Palestine, 
much of it is mountainous and abounds in caves, some 
of them very capacious. That of En-gedi, or the 
Fountain of the Goats, was sufficiently ample to con- 
ceal David and his six hundred men in its inner 
recesses, while Saul laid down ttf rest within the cave's 
mouth, utterly unconscious of his danger. 

Mr, Paxton's remarks are as follows. " In passing 
over it, (Palestine,) I am almost perpetually reminded 
of Kentucky, and some parts of Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania, especially the limestone district in the Valley^ 
All who have travelled in Virginia know, that the 
Valley of Virginia is, in many respects, the most 



37 



distance under ground, emerge at another 
point. The sinkholes, as they are called, are 
not the least remarkable curiosities of this 

valuable part of that State ; that in many places there 
is much rock on the surface, and that on some farms 
whole acres are rendered nearly useless by the washing 
away of the earth which covered the face of the rock. 
If it is thus in one hundred years, what will it be in 
four thousand ? But it more especially reminds me of 
Kentucky. Both countries are based upon a limestone 
rock, which is horizontal, and crops out perpetually at 
the sides of the hills. In Kentucky we already see 
many places where the soil is all gone. Not long 
before leaving America, I visited one of the first set- 
tlers in that state, who resides near Danville, (Col. 
Joseph M'Dowell.) I noticed large masses of rock 
near his house several feet above the ground, and 
asked him if those rocks were thus naked when he 
settled there. ' No, no,' said he, ' not one of them was 
to be seen for long afterwards.' It would now take 
two, possibly three feet of earth to cover those rocks, 
as they were when he first settled there. I have put a 
similar question to other persons, and found that in 
many parts of the State, two or three feet of earth have 
somehow disappeared from the surface. If the same 
process goes on for five hundred years, Kentucky will, 
in many places, show as much naked rock as is now 
seen in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem or Jerusalem ; 
and what would it be in four thousand years ? But 
4 



38 

region. They are of a circular shape, and 
a number of yards in diameter, shelving 
down to the centre with a gentle declivity, 
and supposed to owe their origin to the 
undermining action of subjacent water. 
One of these sinks is within a short dis- 
tance of BowHng-Green ; from one side of 
which bursts a stream, which after tra- 
versing the bottom is engulfed in the 
opposite side. The current is of sufficient 
force to turn an undershot wheel, to which 
utilitarian purpose it has been applied ; and 
the sight of a mill in so strange a place is 
an amusing spectacle. 

We may ascribe not only these sinks, 
but also the cliffs and caves, which confer 
so much of the wild, romantic, and pic- 
will it follow, when the rock thus takes possession of 
the surface, that old Kentucky, as her sons love to call 
her, was not, when first settled, and is not now one of 
the first countries in the world ? The more I see of 
Palestine, the more I am persuaded that it was once 
one of the first countries in the world. The time was, 
I doubt not, when all these rocks were covered with a 
fine vegetable mould." — Paxton's Letters on Palestine, 
p. 181. 



39 

turesque upon various parts of Kentucky, 
to the powerful agency of water. The 
character of the rivers and torrents is 
rapid and impetuous, while the geological 
formation of the country through which 
these rivers rush is limestone, in some 
places diversified with sandstone, in others 
with slate. As a natural consequence, the 
erosive action of running water has every 
where worn deep and narrow channels, 
easily fordable in the dry season, but for- 
midable in the spring and winter from the 
swollen currents that sweep rapidly along. 
It is to the long continued and powerful 
actions of the streams we owe, as is uni- 
versally admitted, the noble cliffs of the 
Kentucky, the Dick, and the Cumberland 
rivers. These grand mural escarpments 
challenge the most enthusiastic admiration 
from every eye. The cliffs of Kentucky, 
at the mouth of Hickman, in consequence 
of lying on a travelled road, have been 
seen and extolled by numbers, but the cliffs 
of Dick's river, which are approached by 
a less frequented path, and are therefore 



40 

less noted, are not inferior in wild and 
romantic grandeur. Widening into a stu- 
pendous amphitheatre of blue limestone, 
they rise perpendicularly to the height of 
three hundred feet, fringed upon the sum- 
mit with cedars and other evergreens, 
while the graceful Virgilia decorates the 
face of the chffs with its long pendant 
racemes of snow-white flowers. Standing 
upon the brink, which you suddenly ap- 
proach before you are aware, you behold 
the blue and rocky rampart fronting you, 
while at a distance of several hundred feet 
below, you catch a glimpse of the winding 
stream with a mill-seat on its bank. You 
descend the ravine by one of those rude 
and sloping paths along the side of the 
precipitous cliff, which are said to have 
been originally trodden out by the nume- 
rous herds of buffalo. Arrived in safety 
at the bottom, thanks to your surefooted 
steed, you gaze upw^ard in awe at the 
huge frowning rampart that encloses you 
on every side, lost in wonder at the rude 
magnificence of nature. Having digressed 



41 



so far already, I shall be indulged in 

quoting a passage from the second canto ; 

of Rokeby, that contains a beautiful de- | 

scription of the glen through which the ' 

Greta passes near its junction with the 

Tees, and is strikingly applicable to the ^ 

scenery of which we are speaking. j 

"Sinking 'mid Greta's thickets deep,' I 

A mild and darker course they keep, | 

A stern and lone, yet lovely road i 

As e'er the foot of minstrel trod ! i 

Broad shadows o'er their passage fell ; I 
Deeper and narrower grew the dell ; 
It seem'd some mountain, rent and riven, 

A channel for the stream had given ! 

So high the cliffs of limestone gray, j 

Hung beetling o'er the torrent's way, ■ 
Yielding, along their rugged base, 

A flinty footpath's niggard space ; i 

Where he, who winds 'twixt rock and wave, 1 

May hear the headlong torrent rave, I 
And like a steed in frantic fit. 
That flings the froth from curb and bit. 
May view her chafe her waves and spray 

O'er every rock that bars her way, i 

Till foam-globes on her eddies ride, j 

Thick as the schemes of human pride \ 

4# ^ 



^ 



42 

That down life's current drive amain — 
As frail, as frothy, and as vain i 

" The cliffs that rear their haughty head 
High o'er the river's darksome bed, 
Were now all naked, wild, and gray, 
Now waving all with greenwood spray; 
Here trees to every crevice clung, 
And o'er the dell their branches hung; 
And there, all splinter'd and uneven, 
The shiver'd rocks ascend to heaven. 
Oft too the ivy swathed their breasts. 
And wreathed its garland round their crests, 
Or from their spires bade loosely flare. 
Its tendrils in the middle air. 
As pennons wont to wave of old 
O'er the high feast of baron bold."* 

Returning from this long digression, into 
which the pleasing nature of the subject 
beguiled us, we will resume our geological 
disquisitions. 

Beneath the western coal basin of the 
lower Ohio, stretches a formation of slate 
rock, several hundred feet thick, abound- 
ing in iron ore. This again lies upon the 

* Rokcbv, Canto Il.'vii. viii. 



43 

cavernous limestone, which is found in 
eastern as well as in western Kentucky, 
and also in Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, 
and always serving as a floor for the coal 
formation. It is in this cavernous lime- 
stone occur the great caves of Kentucky, 
which have been so much spoken of. As 
these caves contain subterranean streams, 
the sound of whose distant roar is heard 
coming up from deep and dismal abysses, 
we may without violence account for their 
long winding galleries and spacious halls, 
by supposing the violent or gradually ero- 
sive action of running water to have been 
at work ; and as the strata of the limestone, 
as well as the superposed coal and iron for- 
mations, lie in a nearly horizontal position, 
and with just sufficient dip to allow water 
to run off easily, the laminae immediately 
resting on those parts which crumbled or 
were worn away, being deprived of their 
former supports, fell, causing in turn the 
fall of superior laminse, till the dilapidation 
was arrested by some stratum of sufficient 
breadth and firmness to cover and rest 



44 

upon the walls thus formed, and serve as 
a ceiling to the excavation. The Temple, 
and several of the passages in the Mam- 
moth Cave, have evidently been widened, 
if not originally formed, by such a process. 
The presence of water in some of these 
subterraneous chambers is attested by 
streams, cascades, pools, percolations, sta- 
lactites, and stalagmites. We can form 
no adequate idea of the force of water in 
a torrent, from the diminished scale on 
which we see its operations now. How 
great a mass of waters might have been 
accumulating for centuries, till the rocky 
barriers were no more able to withstand 
the immense pressure, but gave way be- 
fore it, we have no data for ascertaining. 
Reasoning from analogy, however, we see 
indubitable evidences of such a process in 
the deeply cut channels of the Kentucky 
rivers ; in the violent efforts of the She- 
nandoah to effect a junction with the 
Potomac at Harper's Ferry ; in the chan- 
nel of the Mississippi at the Grand Tower, 
where a large circular rock of one hundred 



45 

feet high emerges from the water on the 
Missouri side, corresponding with a massy 
rock jutting out diagonally across on the 
IlHnois shore, which, with the peculiar 
alluvial formation of the upper country, 
has led reflecting men to conjecture that 
a ledge of rock had here pent up the 
water, and forced it to expand into a vast 
lake, till, the pressure becoming too great, 
the barrier yielded, and the river burst 
forth with impetuosity into a new channel. 
We find another instance in the Falls of 
Niagara. Within the memory of men 
living, the Falls have receded several 
yards, owing to the disruption of the 
rocky ledge; and, from tradition and 
various indications along the shore, it is 
believed that they have receded some 
miles during past centuries^ before the 
foot of a white man ever touched the 
shore : and it has been considered nowise 
improbable that the cataract once poured 
down its thunders in the vicinity of the 
present Queenstown. 

He that has seen the body of water in 



46 

the Mammoth Cave, and heard its deep 
sullen roar as it was precipitated into 
unknown abysses, will be prepared to con- 
ceive the violent convulsions which may- 
have taken place in the dark and awful 
solitudes of these caverns, in ages un- 
known and beyond the memory of men. 

Having thus attempted to account for 
the origin of the great subterranean caves 
of Kentucky, although we are not geolo- 
gist enough to explain the singular coinci- 
dence, or its reason in nature, why the 
cavernous limestone should in so many 
instances prove invariably the floor of a 
coal formation, we shall now proceed to 
describe the interior of the Mammoth 
Cave. 

The Mammoth Cave is not so called, 
upon the most diligent inquiry I could 
make, from any bones or relics of the 
mastodon having been found there, as 
some have conjectured. Indeed it is dif- 
ficult to conceive how that unwieldy ani- 
mal could descend the steep declivity, or 
being once down, how he could ever clam- 



47 

ber up again. Besides, very soon after 
entering, the cave narrows to a degree 
that requires even a man to stoop, much 
more w^ould it effectually exclude a mam- 
moth. It is on account of its size that the 
name has been bestowed; and not inap- 
propriately, if it be true, as has been 
affirmed by Mr. Fhnt, that the famous 
Grotto of Antiparos will bear no com- 
parison with it for extent or grandeur. 

The writer entered, with a party of ten, 
at four o'clock in the afternoon, and re- 
mained in the cave till ten at night, having 
walked, direct and retrograde movements 
included, about twelve miles under ground, 
if our guides might be credited. To guard 
against being overheated, as well as to 
prevent soiling by grease or mud, we laid 
aside our coats. Each man bore a lighted 
candle in his hand ; the guides, to provide 
against accidents, carrying, in addition to 
their lamps, a basket full of candles and 
oil-flasks. 

We encountered a brisk current of cool 
air rushing from the interior towards the 



48 

mouth, which extinguished some of our 
lights. This current ceases to be felt after 
advancing some yards, and is said to be 
of cool air in summer, and warm in win- 
ter. This may be an index of the uniform 
temperature of the interior during the year. 
Within the first mile we found various 
pits and large vats, formerly used for ex- 
tracting saltpetre. This mineral abounds 
in the caves of this region, as well as in 
the superior conglomerate, but instead of 
crystallizing on the surface, as in the latter 
case, the earth is here saturated with it to 
a considerable depth. It is in the form of 
nitrate of Jime, which had to be decom- 
posed by leaching the lie through wood- 
ashes in huge vats, and thus converted into 
nitrate of potassa, the common nitre or 
saltpetre of commerce. It has been said 
that fifty pounds of crude nitre have been 
extracted from one hundred pounds of 
earth. Great quantities were manufac- 
tured during the last war, to the amount 
it has been stated of four hundred thou- 
sand pounds, but since that time the busi- 



49 

ness has been neglected. In the Mammoth 
Cave nothing has been done for several 
years. 

There is another cave in this region, 
called the Saltpetre Cave, which abounds 
in this mineral, and which was, no long 
time ago, the scene of a tragical adven- 
ture. An individual of the name of Wright, 
who had conceived the idea of repairing 
his pecuniary losses by the manufacture of 
saltpetre, made an engagement with the 
innkeeper in the vicinity, to meet him at 
the cave with lights and a guide. The 
morning proved so inclement, that the 
innkeeper took it for granted no one would 
venture out, and therefore sent no guide. 
He was however mistaken. The stranger, 
intent on his scheme, was punctual to his 
appointment at the cave, accompanied by 
a friend, in spite of the weather, and after 
waiting a long time in vain for the arrival 
of the guide, determined to enter alone. 
Having satisfied their curiosity, they pre- 
pared to retrace their steps, but this, like 
the famous return from Avernus, was not 
5 



60 

so easy as the ingress. After pursuing 
one fork of a branching passage for some 
time, without reaching the outlet, his com- 
panion became convinced that they had 
taken the wrong path, and remonstrated 
with his friend, but in vain ; he was confi- 
dent of being right, and insisted on ad- 
vancing. To add to their confusion, their 
Ughts went out, and they were compelled 
to feel their way in total darkness, the 
stranger a little in advance. At length his 
companion heard a sound as of sand 
sUding down a decHvity. He called to 
his companion, but no answer was re- 
turned. He shouted aloud in agony, but 
the dreary vaults gave back nothing but 
the echo of his own voice, and the rever- 
berations were succeeded by an awful 
silence. Horrorstruck at the idea of his 
friend being lost in one of the dismal pits 
with which the cave abounded, and of 
being himself buried alive in the winding 
chambers, where even his body might 
never be discovered, he felt ready to sink 
in despair. But his very despair lent him 



51 

energy. Convinced that his conjectures 
were correct, he turned, and cautiously, 
groped his way back. To his great joy 
he found the angle where the passage 
branched, and to his greater joy, he had 
not long pursued the other gallery, before 
he saw dayhght at a distance beaming in 
upon him. As soon as practicable, the 
scene of the late disaster was examined, 
and on coming to a deep shelving pit, the 
sandy edge showed too plainly the manner 
of the accident. The unfortunate adven- 
turer had approached within a foot or two 
of the brink, when the faithless sand gave 
way beneath his weight, and he slid ra- 
pidly to the bottom. Ropes being procured, 
his body was found dashed below at a 
considerable depth, much bruised, and life 
wholly extinct. 

The necessity of keeping in the close 
vicinity of our guides was soon rendered 
very apparent, for nothing is easier than 
to lose oneself in the labyrinths of the four- 
and-twenty branches that diverge on either 
hand, veiling in midnight darkness their 



52 

treacherous gulfs ; from some of which the 
sound of falling waters came sullenly on 
the ear. 

We explored a few of their branches, 
but I shall describe the principal objects 
only which attracted our notice, instead of 
leading you through every passage and 
chamber like a guide-book, or expatiating 
on the fancied images of the Steamboat^ 
the Mi7Tor, and similar freaks of nature. 
Leaving to our right the Haunted Chamber, 
we voted to visit The River. The Haunted 
Chamber is a spacious hall, in the centre 
of which stand two colossal stalagmites 
of a dusky hue. In this apartment many 
years ago were found two or more 
Indian mummies, which after being exhi- 
bited over the country, were deposited in 
Peale's Museum. One figure was a female 
in a sitting posture, of small size, and 
very much drawn together. Besides the 
swathings, and other accompaniments, she 
wore a bead bag suspended from her 
wrist, filled with needles and curious orna- 
ments. A labourer whom we afterwards 



53 

encountered, told us that he had been em- 
ployed excavating the nitrous earth, in 
1810, and had dug up two or three mum- 
mies, but deeming it sacrilegious to disturb 
the dead, he had covered them again, and 
could never afterwards identify the place. 

The Bat-Room is so called from the num- 
ber of bats which cling to the walls by 
hundreds, like bees. 

The rocky gallery through which we 
now walked, was arched overhead to the 
height of twenty or thirty feet, and had 
much from its novelty to fix our gaze ; but 
mindful of the long task before us, we 
resolutely pushed onward, leaving the 
Haunted Chamber to the right, and the 
Church and Pulpit to the left, descending 
gradually, as it seemed, much of the time. 
We passed on the way a slender stream 
pouring from the roof into a basin, and 
hence called the Cascade. We also re- 
fused to visit the Grotto, so called from its 
numerous stalactites, as we were informed 
that they were in a very ruinous and con- 
fused condition. 

5* 



54 

After some time we approached a low 
arched passage, not more than a yard 
high, but a quarter of a mile in length, 
through which we crept on our hands and 
knees; a very fatiguing operation. The 
bottom was composed of a fine dry yel- 
lowish sand, instead of the stiff clay found 
elsewhere. After ploughing the sand, we 
emerged into a more roomy space ; and a 
few more turns and descents brought us 
at last to The River. 

This is a stream of water twenty feet 
wide, and they said as many deep. It was 
discovered only about a year ago. Its 
current is very sluggish, as has been 
proved by launching a piece of wood 
bearing a lighted candle, on its bosom. 
We were informed that a species of ichite 
fish were found here without eyes, and 
the keeper of the hotel assured us he him- 
self had seen them, but that their other 
senses were so acute, the slightest touch 
of water overhead was sufficient to alarm 
them, and make them dart off like light- 
ning. There had been a canoe here : but 



55 

the day before it had got loose from its 
moorings and floated away. In this visi- 
ters would row down the stream two 
hundred yards, till stopped by a ledge of 
rock. Two of my acquaintances, a week 
afterwards, obtained a new skiff, and re- 
solved to pass the barrier. Accordingly, 
lifting the skiff over the rock, they launch- 
ed it on the other side, and rowed, as 
they thought, for two miles. They beheld 
a great many new scenes and chambers 
never explored before. They also saw 
some of the white fish. As for us, on our 
visit, we were not favoured with a sight of 
these natural curiosities, which would have 
been to the full as interesting a spectacle as 
Prince Bonbobbin's white mice with green 
eyes, for which he ransacked the world. 
All we found was a poor miserable mud- 
fish, caught with the hand by the guide, 
near the shore, blinded by the light. It 
was certainly a wonderful thought, that 
such a body of water should have been 
flowing here a furlong at least under 
ground, in the silence and gloom of cen- 



56 

turies. So far are these subterranean 
realms beneath the surface, that a gentle- 
man assured me, a thunderstorm once 
occurred over his head, while he was in 
the cave, of which he and his party were 
totally unconscious. 

The next place we visited was the Dome, 
called GorirCs Dome, from its discoverer 
and late owner. 

The descent is by a rude ladder, just 
beside a frightful chasm called the Bottom- 
less Pit, whose depth of darkness could 
not be illuminated by our candles, nor by 
blazing papers thrown into it. A massy 
rock, disengaged with some effort, and 
rolled into the abyss, went dow^n with a 
loud whizzing for several seconds, which 
was followed by a dull sullen splash ; and 
then we could hear the waves, agitated by 
the falling rock and madly resenting the- 
intrusion, heaving, surging, roaring, and 
lashing the sides of the cavern, like the 
reverberations of distant thunder. 

Having descended the ladder, we found 
the path winding round a high narrow 



57 

crevice, which we followed for some time 
till we were brought up against a wall per- 
forated by an aperture called from its size, 
shape, and use, Tlie Window. Looking 
through this window, and holding our 
lights at arm's length within, we beheld 
a narrow but lofty chamber, crowned by 
a beautiful and regularly-shaped dome, 
running up to a point, and ribbed, like old 
Gothic masonry ; while below all was im- 
penetrable darkness. But when one of 
the guides by another path descended to 
the floor, and we saw the light gradually 
streaming along the ragged edges of the 
crevice through which he passed, till at 
last it illuminated the base, and thus ena- 
bled the eye to take in the whole interior, 
it was a grand spectacle. Desirous of en- 
joying this scene in its full perfection, the 
writer, with only two or three others of 
the party, resolved on descending by this 
other aperture. It was truly a frightful 
adventure, but having taken the first step, 
there was no retreat. The aperture was 



58 

more like a very narrow well than any 
thing else, twenty or thirty feet deep, and 
hardly large enough to admit more than 
one at a time. Down this cleft we had 
to navigate pretty much Hke a chimney- 
sweep clambering through a chimney, 
putting out now this hand, now that, to 
support us. Once I had to stoop till my 
hands rested where my feet were, and 
then, disengaging my feet, let my body 
drop, supported by the palms of my hands, 
until I reached another projecting ledge to 
stand on, one foot upon one side, the other 
on the opposite. It is not to be denied, 
that when half way down I was troubled 
with some serious deliberations as to the 
feasibility of my ever getting up again. 
However, encouraged by the guides and 
ashamed to retreat, I persevered, and was 
richly rewarded. The view from the bot- 
tom was grand, awfully grand. Looking 
up, we beheld a magnificent dome, throw- 
ing its lofty span overhead, apparently to 
the height of one hundred feet ; or rather it 



59 

was a semi-dome, for the other half more 
reminded one of a vast spiral staircase 
"winding upwards till lost in utter darkness. 
Beneath, on the left hand, lay a deep 
gloomy den, while on the right, stretching 
away in midnight blackness, gaped ano- 
ther horrid pool of water, which I sup- 
posed, from its position, to be identical 
with the abyss called the Bottomless Pit. 

Having gratified our curiosity, we as- 
cended, covered with mud, if not with 
glory; and furnishing abundant food for 
merriment to our companions. And here 
I may remark, that this was certainly any 
thing but the cave of Trophonius, into 
which, if any one ventured, he never 
laughed again, for we had some jovial 
spirits among us. 

The next compartment we turned to 
visit, was the Temple. This is estimated 
to He about four miles from the entrance. 
The way to it is through a noble and spa- 
cious gallery, with but few windings, and 
in general of a lofty height. The sides 
and roof are thickly encrusted with petri- 



60 

factions, and the floor is strewed with 
fallen fragments of the same kind. This 
passage, as well as all the others, is co- 
vered with staring names and initials 
traced in smoke ; a practice which may 
indeed immortalize the visiter, and serve 
as an agreeable remembrancer to succeed- 
ing acquaintances, but which shockingly 
mars the wild grandeur and magnificence 
of the scene. 

This gallery, which is a continuation of 
the Main Cave, is remarkable for having 
the ceiling discoloured with large black 
spots, in whose curious sinuosities fancy 
may trace the frozen serpent of the south, 
and the various figures of the Zodiac. 
One of these places, where the passage 
expands a little, is called the Star-Chamher. 
Here, to all appearance, the lofty dome is 
cleft open, admitting, as through an aper- 
ture of the roof, a view of the nightly sky 
studded with stars. The effect is very 
fine ; and although you are aware of the 
illusion, you can scarcely be persuaded 
that you are not looking up at the starry 



61 

heavens. This discoloration of the sur- 
face is caused by the damp, or black moss, 
interrupted occasionally by points of rock 
projecting from the moss and from their 
lighter colour reflecting the light of the 
candles, so as to form a contrast, and 
suggest the idea of stars. 

The way underfoot is extremely rough, 
consisting of fragments of fallen rocks, 
strewing and almost choking up the bot- 
tom of the gallery. 

Arrived at length at the Temple, we 
were filled with unmingled admiration at 
the grand scale on which the works of 
nature were conducted. The passage here 
expands into a vast saloon, covering, ac- 
cording to the guides, eight acres of 
ground. Judging by my eye, and allow- 
ing something for the known propensity of 
cicerones to magnify, with natural par- 
tiality, the marvels they exhibit, I should 
think that four acres would be nearer the 
truth. We stood beneath the spacious 
vault, springing to the height of forty or 
fifty feet or more from the base, covering 
6 



62 

acres of ground, yet unsupported by a 
solitary column in the whole intermediate 
space — stupendous spectacle ! Spreading 
our party along the sides of this vast 
chamber, we were able by the line of Hght 
to form some estimate of its size. The 
roof rose in the form of a low circular 
dome, whose concavity was composed of 
the edges of laminoB of limestone, broken 
so gracefully as to have a striking resem- 
blance to clouds piled up against the sky. 
Seated beneath this magnificent vault, 
the tuneful part of our company waked 
its echoes with a fine old chant. The 
great size of the chamber gave an unusual 
richness and mellowness to their voices, 
and as the choral harmony pealed along 
the rocky vault with slow and solemn 
cadence, the eflfect was indescribably im- 
pressive. 

It was with a feeHng like regret that I 
heard that the present owner. Dr. Croghan, 
of Louisville, who has just purchased the 
estate for ten thousand dollars, contem- 
plates clearing out the avenues, and making 



63 

them accessible for an omnibus to the dis- 
tance of three or four miles, for the con- 
venience of the ladies, and erecting a sort 
of hotel in the temple. Only think of a 
hotel and an omnibus in the Mammoth 
Cave ! It may be all very commodious, 
but I cannot help thinking it will detract 
from the wild grandeur of the scene. Man 
seldom meddles with these subhme works 
of nature, except to mar them, and I must 
confess, though at the risk of its being ridi- 
culed as a weakness, that, for my own 
part, I feel almost as much annoyed by 
these interferences, as did Rousseau among 
the mountains of Dauphiny, when he found 
those romantic solitudes which he had 
fondly dedicated to the worship of Nature, 
invaded by the din of forge-hammers. The 
enthusiastic Jean Jacques, to be sure, car- 
ried his sentiment rather too far ; his friend 
St. Pierre, with a fancy as glowing but 
less morbid, would have converted those 
very hammers into an additional element 
of the beautiful, and extracted a moral les- 
son from the forge. Where obvious utility 



64 

imperiously demands the sacrifice, the pic- 
turesque must be an inferior consideration : 
but where curiosity is the sole motive, and 
the whole scene derives its attractions 
from its very seclusion and native wild- 
ness, there seems to be an incongruity in 
introducing the artificial refinements of 
social life, and thus destroying the very 
attributes which give interest to the scene. 
It would* be as preposterous as to light up 
a camera obscura wdth gas, or to exhibit 
a wild Paw^nee Loup in a full suit of broad- 
cloth, without his feathers, his arrows, or 
his paint. 

A hotel in such a situation could be of 
no conceivable use. Refreshments would 
be unnecessary ; and to think of a mere 
coflfee-house for loungers, with a bar filled 
with decanters, and perhaps supplied with 
cards, would be monstrous. As for pass- 
ing the night there, most persons would be 
deterred by fear of dampness ; few would 
be so weary as to be unable to proceed 
further ; and still fewer would be affected 
by the sole stimulus of an excited curiosity. 



65 

One of this latter class, indeed, I knew, 
but he could hardly be induced to repeat 
the experiment. It was in the autumn of 
1838, that I met with him. He was a tall 
muscular young man, as straight as an In- 
dian, somewhat bronzed by the sun, and 
his habiliments rather Gibeonitish. He 
was the son of an eminent citizen of Cin- 
cinnati, and was on his return from a 
pedestrian excursion for amusement to the 
Mammoth Cave. He had a violin slung 
in a green bag, under his arm, with whose 
music he had solaced his weary hours, and 
entertained his hosts along the road. 

Burning to feel the sublimity which he 
imagined the solitude and total darkness 
must create, he had passed the night alone 
in the cave, having an understanding with 
the guides. I asked him if he had felt the 
sublimity he expected ; but from his reply, 
should conjecture he had been disappointed, 
for he complained dolefully of the bats, 
which kept flying over his face all night. 

About ten o'clock at night, we emerged 
from the cave's mouth, the stars shining 
6* 



66 

down upon us calmly. We had been un- 
der ground six hours, and had walked, as 
we were told, a dozen miles; but the 
exhilaration of our spirits prevented us 
from being conscious of fatigue . Although 
we had been stripped of our upper gar- 
ments, the exercise had kept us sufficiently 
comfortable, nor did we experience, as we 
were told was usual, an oppressive w^armth 
in the atmosphere without. The walking 
was generally dry, and never so damp as 
to be inconvenient or unwholesome. At 
length, after supper, we got to bed ; but, 
between the day's excitement and the late 
supper, our dreams were of rocks and 
dens and antres vast ; and the landlord 
afterwards averred, that some of his guests 
had made a terrible noise in the night, and 
called out lustily for Stephen, the guide ! 

The next morning most of our party 
rode off, leaving but four of us to complete 
the exploration. Upon the acquisition of 
these companions, the writer felicitated 
himself as one of those rare and agreeable 
conjunctures, which, as they seldom hap- 



67 



pen, are more highly prized, and which so 
much heighten the interest of occasions Hke 
this. Three of us could tell of the won- 
ders we had severally seen in three conti- 
nents; and as we rode, on our return, 
through seven miles of dreary and broken 
woodlands, the way was agreeably be- 
guiled by the mutual recital. While one 
expatiated on the bold and rocky Alps, the 
second narrated his adventures in Africa, 
and told how he had been swamped in 
the surge, and how he had ridden on 
men's shoulders. As for the third, though 
be had w^andered in no foreign climes, he 
had been an incurable domestic lion-hun- 
ter, and for the gratification of his curi- 
osity, had traversed half the States of the 
Union. True, he had neither seen the 
Alps nor the Rhine, nor palavered with 
African kings, nor ridden on men's shoul- 
ders; but he consoled himself with the 
recollection of indigenous marvels. He 
had sailed beneath the pah'sadoes of the 
Hudson; he had gazed with rapture on 
the blended magnificence and beauty of 



68 

Niagara: he had beheld the far-famed 
scenery of Harper^ s Ferry ; he had looked 
down from the dizzy crag of the Hawk^s 
JVest, on the diminished river chafing be- 
low ; he had felt his bosom expand at the 
confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi; 
he had climbed the celebrated Iron Moun- 
tains of Missouri, rising in a cone of near 
seven hundred feet high; he had looked 
up with awe on the frowning Cliffs of the 
Kentucky ; and now, to mention no more, 
he had just pierced the subterraneous la- 
byrinths of the Mammoth Cave. Such was 
the little company, thus fortuitously at- 
tracted together by common curiosity. 

Having resolved to commence the day 
with a survey of another cave, of inferior 
extent, hard by, called the White Cave, 
from its being filled with white concre- 
tions, we repaired thither after breakfast. 
This cave, or rather grotto, lies within half 
a mile of the hotel, and is situated on the 
declivity of a hill. Its mouth is contracted, 
and will not admit a man without stooping; 
nor is there more than one or two cham- 



69 

bers in the interior. Its incrusted roof is 
mostly low. This grotto is filled with 
stalactites and massy stalagmites. You 
behold concretions above you, around you, 
beneath your feet, glistening in the light of 
the candles. There is here none of the 
inconceivable wildness and grandeur of 
the Mammoth Cave, but, on the contrary, 
much to awaken the sentiment of the 
beautiful. Soon after entering, we passed 
into a low chamber, through the openings 
of a magnificent screen, reaching from the 
ceiling to the floor, now parted like solid 
pillars, now expanded like the broad folds 
of heavy drapery, and again in one cor- 
ner, projecting in a columnar mass, re- 
sembling a large organ. It seemed as if 
a sheet of water had poured down from 
fissures in the ceiling, and suddenly petri- 
fied as it flowed. Our European traveller 
assured us, that we might have a very 
good idea of the venerable and elaborate 
carved-work of old Gothic churches, from 
this fantastic screen of dusky white, which 
stretched, like a partition, across the entire 



70 

length of the apartment, dividmg it in two. 
Here a beautiful little basin, of an oval 
shape, four or five feet in its longest di- 
ameter, attracted our admiration. It is 
composed of the same materials with the 
surrounding formations, and is filled to 
the brim with clear pellucid water, the 
quantity of which never increases nor 
diminishes. Its charm consists in a neat 
border, three or four inches in height, 
which surrounds the edge like a standing 
ruffle, disposed in folds or plaits, as if it 
had been crimped. It has received the 
poetical name of LaorCs Fount. As we 
held up our candles to the little stalactites, 
pendent from the ceihng, we saw a drop 
of water percolating through each tube, 
and refracting a beautiful iris. In these 
drops we saw several little black animal- 
culse, which frisked about, apparently in 
great uneasiness, when the flame approach- 
ed too near their watery habitation. Be- 
sides these petty specimens of animated 
nature, numerous crickets, apparently fat 
and well fed, were clinging to the walls in 



71 

every quarter. As the grotto was of no 
great capacity, and did not present much 
variety in its attractions, our visit was 
brief. 

Upon our egress, we were to have re- 
sumed our examination of the Great Cave, 
but finding that the long walk of the pre- 
vious evening, with its clamberings and 
creepings, had fatigued us more than the 
exhilaration of the scene permitted us to 
be conscious of at the moment, we agreed 
to drop the project, and remain satisfied 
with what we had already witnessed. To 
this we were the more easily reconciled, 
from having been told that we had already 
seen the principal wonders. Accordingly, 
we remounted our horses, and made our 
way back to Bell's tavern, where we 
received a friendly welcome from the 
cleverest and most accommodating of 
landlords. 

Thus ended sin excursion, in which we 
were amply repaid for a few petty incon- 
veniences, by the high degree of gratifica- 
tion we had tasted ; while our hearts were 



72 

conscious of vivid emotions of adnniration 
and reverence, as we witnessed the grand 
scale on which the Creator conducts his 
works in the hidden laboratories of nature, 
and the wild magnificence underground, 
even more astonishing than those revealed 
in the light of day. 

It is good to break in occasionally upon 
the whirl of business, and to "withdraw 
from the heartless forms of artificial life, 
in order to cultivate a love of nature, and 
to afford the mind that opportunity for 
reflection and repose which is denied it in 
the crowd. The Americans are accused 
of being more indifferent to the cultivation 
of the love of nature than Europeans. 
They are less fond of exercise in the open 
air ; they more seldom diversify the mono- 
tony of business, and smooth down the 
rugged brow of care by rural excursions ; 
they take less pleasure in cultivating gar- 
dens ; while in England even the humblest 
cottage is adorned with flowers and creep- 
ing plants; and as to the rude magnifi- 
cence of nature's scenery, and the bold 



73 

• 

and beautiful features, the picturesque, or 
the stupendous, which her hand has flung 
over the western continent, the mass of 
our citizens are comparatively strangers 
to marvels, the bare description of which 
captivates all Europe. 

These are indeed "cups which cheer, 
but not inebriate;" these are refined and 
elegant pleasures, which improve while 
they unbend the mind, and impart an 
intellectual character even to its relaxa- 
tions. To a man of such tastes, solitude 
itself has charms ; he finds entertainment 
instead of weariness in conversing with 
Nature, and her rudest scenes afford him 
pleasure, by awakening new trains of 
thought. 

We are so constituted that we demand 
variety. After being a long time accus- 
tomed to a certain set of objects, or a par- 
ticular routine of occupations, our views 
are apt to becom.e contracted, and the 
healthy tone of the mind is impaired. 

There are certain emotions and senti- 
ments of which man is susceptible, that 
7 



74 

cannot be brought into play in the ordi- 
nary course of Ufe. As the muscles of a 
sedentary person are cramped for want 
of exercise, and experience an agreeable 
relief when another set of muscles is 
called into action, so it is with our men- 
tal susceptibilities. Man, confined to his 
narrow sphere, is in danger of attaching 
too much importance to the external sym- 
bols of wealth, power, and distinction, 
which are constantly before his eyes ; 
and of thinking these to be the only objects 
worthy of attention, or capable of minis- 
tering delight. The finer sentiments of 
the soul are smothered, or rather ossified, 
amidst the calculating, matter-of-fact, mo- 
ney-making world. 

Let him therefore retire occasionally, 
that he may contrast the freshness of na- 
ture with the feverish irritations, the jealous 
thwartings, and the petty emulations of 
human Hfe ; and let him taste those purer 
and more quiet pleasures to which he has 
been long a stranger. Let him learn that 
he is made up of something else beside a 



75 

body; let him make the discovery that 
he has a soul that can feel. Let him be- 
hold spectacles beside whose grandeur the 
pursuits and works of man sink into insig- 
nificance ; and let him trace in those broad 
and masterly strokes a hand superior to 
that of mortals. 

All natural objects, whether of grandeur 
or beauty, suggest the idea of something 
corresponding in mind. The poet personi- 
fies all nature, and sees a Dryad in every 
oak, a Naiad in every stream ; and the most 
prosaic learn to speak in metaphors, and 
talk oi frowning rocks and angry torrents. 
In the terms thus employed, we discern a 
reference to mind ; and thus the sublime 
in nature has its counterpart in moral 
grandeur, majesty, or terror. 

This investing all nature with intelli- 
gence, and introducing a sentiment to 
heighten our interest, leads by a very 
simple process to the conception of a 
supreme intelligence presiding over na- 
ture. For as Lord Bacon in one of his 
essays well remarks : " It were less ab- 



76 

surd to swallow the monstrosities of the 
Alcoran, the Talmud, and the Legends, 
than to suppose the fabric of the universe 
unconnected with a presiding mind. Hence 
God has never wrought a miracle to con- 
fute Atheism, his ordinary works being all- 
sufficient for that purpose." 

Shakspeare has painted the contempla- 
tive man finding " sermons in stones." It 
is a beautiful thought, and St. Pierre is a 
beautiful example of its truth. See how, 
at the touch of genius, as beneath the 
stroke of the prophet's rod, the rock yields 
up its hidden treasures. He supposes the 
pleasure of contemplating timeworn ruins 
to arise from the impression of their anti- 
quity; and that the contrast of our own 
ephemeral labours with the perpetuity of 
nature, launches our thoughts still farther 
into infinity. This going out of ourselves, 
this leaping over the narrow limits of pre- 
sent space and time, is an association of 
sentiment which is invariable, and must 
therefore be regarded as a law of our 
moral constitution, a native instinct, like 



77 

all other instincts, infallible ; which at once 
reveals a soul yearning after the infinite, 
and points to a Deity in whom the idea of 
the infinite is finally realized. " Thus," 
says he, " I embrace at once the past and 
future at sight of an insensible rock, and 
which, in consecrating it to virtue, I ren- 
der far more venerable than by decorating 
it with the five orders of architecture." 

The pure and elevated pleasures to which 
we have alluded as springing from a love 
of nature, have been graphically depicted 
by Burns in one of the happiest inspirations 
of his muse. Burns was himself a child of 
Nature, and better deserved that title for 
his epitaph than the nervous Rousseau, 
over whose tomb in the Isle of Poplars it 
was inscribed. The animated Apostrophe 
to Nature by the Scottish poet, breathes 
sentiments no less beautiful than true. 

" O Nature ! all thy shows and fornps, 
To feeling, pensive hearts, have charms ; 
Whether the summer kindly warms, 
With life and light ; 
Or winter howls, in gusty storms, 

The long, dark night ! 
7* 



The Muse ! no poet ever found her, 
Till by himself he learned to wander, 
Adown some trottin' burn's meander, 

And not think long; 
O sweet ! to stray and pensive ponder 

A heartfelt song ! 

The worldly race may drudge and drive, 
Elbow and jostle, stretch and strive ; 
Let me fair Naiure^s face describe. 

And I with pleasure. 
Shall let the busy, grumbling, hive 

Hum o'er their treasure." 



SOME NOTICES j 

( 

I 

OF THE 

EARLY HISTORY OF KENTUCKY. 

I 
i 

READ BEFORE THE TRANSYLVANIA INSTITUTE, i 

DECEMBER 17, 1838; AND SINCE READ BY 

I 

REQUEST BEFORE THE KENTUCKY ' 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF 

.,1 
LOUISVILLE, ^ 



EARLY HISTORY OF KENTUCKY. 



Historians of Kentucky — Interesting materials— Sources 
of information — Discovery of Kentucky — Early settle- 
ments — Enthusiasm of the first explorers — Country de- 
scribed — Biography of Col. Henderson — His obscure 
birth — Rapid rise to distinction — Embarrassments — 
Ambitious projects — Outlawry — Transylvania Colony — 
Proprietary government — House of Delegates — Defeat 
of the enterprise — The McAfee Company — Hardships 
— Cache robbed — The runaway — McAfee's station — 
Famine of 1779— Young McCoun carried off by In- 
dians — Burnt alive at the stake — Attack on the station 
— Gallant defence — The poltroon and his brave wife — 
Domestic manners— Virginia patents — Profuse issue of 
land-warrants — Subsequent litigation — Land-jobbing in 
Europe — Curious article in American Museum — Rush 
of emigrants — Statistics — Opposition from the savages 
— Etymology of Can-tuck-kee — The title to the soil pur- 
chased from the Cherokees and Five Nations — Kentucky 
hunters — Anecdote of Col. Payne and the bloodhounds 
— Virginia the mother-country — Military settlers — Na- 
tive enthusiasm — Predominant influence in the west — 
Statistical illustration — Tribute to a distinguished states- 
man. 

In the prosecution of historical researches 
of a professional nature, materials occa- 



82 

sionally fell within the reach of the writer 
of this paper, which, although foreign from 
the special purpose to which he had an 
eye, may prove neither unsuitable nor un- 
interesting on the present occasion. Some 
notices of the early settlement of Kentucky 
will readily obtain the attention of an au- 
dience no less patriotic than intelHgent. 

There are three principal sources to 
which those desirous of information on 
this subject usually resort. The " History 
of Kentucky," written by Humphrey Mar- 
shall, which is the oldest ; the " History of 
Kentucky," by Mann Butler, of more re- 
cent date ; and the nearly contemporaneous 
volumes of Judge Hall, entitled *' Sketches 
of the West." 

Mr. Marshall's work is not popular, 
having fallen into unmerited disrepute on 
account of the strong prejudices and poli- 
tical partizanship of the author. It cannot 
be denied, how^ever, that these qualities im- 
part a raciness and piquancy to the work, 
which keep attention from flagging, and 
supply a stimulus to curiosity. Its intrinsic 



83 

merits are great, but it is now scarce, if 
not entirely out of print. 

The history from the pen of Mr. Butler 
is less obnoxious to the preceding censure ; 
but while it displays diligence and research, 
it lies open to the objection of heaviness in 
the matter and carelessness in the style. 
Towards the close especially, there is too 
evident a readiness to borrow largely from 
the labours of others, apparently to save 
the trouble of working up the material into 
an original paragraph. 

Of the three, Judge Hall's volumes are 
decidedly the most captivating to a general 
reader. It is true, the nature of his plan 
is professedly sketchy and superficial, and 
advances no pretensions to the stately 
march of history : but he carries us along 
so smoothly, and withal so satisfactorily, 
that we regret he did not lay out his ener- 
gies upon what might have proved at once 
a standard work and a lasting monument 
to his own fame. His style is poHshed, 
graceful, and sprightly; and he imparts 
vivacity to every topic he handles. His 



Mu 



84 

views and reflections are generally judi- 
cious, and his narrative gives evidence of 
considerable and original research. It 
would be a pity that the title he has chosen 
should ever be the means of depriving him 
of the credit which his industry deserves. 

While each of these writers has his pe- 
culiar merits, we must be pardoned for the 
opinion, that neither of the productions al- 
luded to, is fairly entitled to the rank and 
honours of a standard work. Our Livy is 
yet to make his appearance. 

The intensely interesting nature of the 
early history of this State, an interest not 
exceeded by the history of any other sec- 
tion of the Union ; the important relations, 
domestic and foreign, which Kentucky has 
sustained at various times ; the exciting 
character of the severe political contests 
from which she at last safely emerged, to 
her present prosperity and commanding 
elevation ; the extraordinary religious com- 
motions in the beginning of the current 
century, to which all eyes were turned in 
wonder, and which puzzled the metaphy- 



85 

sicians and physiologists, not only of New 
England, but of London and Edinburgh ; 
the biography of those gifted sons of Ken- 
tucky who have made themselves conspi- 
cuous at home or abroad ; the influence 
which Kentucky has from the first exerted 
on this side of the Alleghanies, and not un- 
seldom beyond them ; all these circum- 
stances demand a historian industrious 
in collecting facts as Livy; comprehen- 
sive in his views as Polybius ; profoundly 
acquainted with the human heart as Taci- 
tus ; skilled in sketching individual por- 
traits as Sallust ; philosophical as Gibbon ; 
elegant as Robertson, and easy as Hume. 
Could the strength of Marshall be blended 
with the accuracy of Butler, and the whole 
adorned with the grace of Hall, we would, 
in thus amalgamating the peculiar merits 
of each, or rather fusing them down to- 
gether into a new compound, possess a 
work at once instructive and entertaining ; 
a work that would descend to after gene- 
rations as a noble memorial of some of the 
most interesting occurrences on which the 
8 



86 

sun has ever shone. It is fervently to be 
wished that some gifted pen will yet exe- 
cute the task. 

But while the general reader can derive 
much valuable information from the authors 
already mentioned, there are other sources 
which as yet are either locked up, or have 
been but sparingly laid open. There are, 
for example, volumes of early travels, con- 
taining much minute and curious matter, 
which are almost entirely out of print, or 
slumber undisturbed amid the venerable 
dust of public libraries. There exist nu- 
merous manuscripts, letters, journals, and 
similar documents of an ancient date, 
which remain private property; But such 
is the commendable liberality with which 
private cabinets are thrown open to the 
inspection of honourable and judicious in- 
vestigators, that the search would be richly 
rewarded by bringing to light papers re- 
lating to public affairs, or illustrative of 
national traits and manners. This last is 
a subject much neglected, and often re- 
garded as beneath the dignity of the his- 



87 

toric muse, but, when properly managed, 
it is capable of shedding much light on the 
secret history of any age. Carlyle, in spite 
of his insufferably turgid and affected 
quaintness, may be cited as an instance, 
to the point, in his recent attempt to deve- 
lope the causes and progress of the French 
Revolution. This mine is far from being 
exhausted, and he who perseveringly pene- 
trates its depths, will find his labour repaid 
by many a gem, and many a rich block 
of ore. 

It is from such sources that the present 
essay is almost wholly compiled. Should 
it prove capable of communicating new 
and agreeable information to those who 
have perused only the historical works 
already alluded to, the writer will feel a 
high degree of gratification in finding that 
the pursuit of one department of knowledge 
has incidentally opened the way to the 
rich stores contained in another. It will 
prove a fresh illustration of the truth, that 
a connexion subsists between all parts of 
knowledge, and that a ray from some re- 



88 



mote and unthought-of point may shed light 
upon that which is the object of immediate 
attention, and dispel the haze in which it 
was enveloped. The cultivation of one 
branch of science leads to the acquisition 
of more, and there is no kind of informa- 
tion which we can afford to throw away 
as worthless. The ancients elegantly fa- 
bled, that the Muses, the nine daughters of 
Memory, were sisters. By the benign ten- 
dency and operation of knowledge, the 
intellect becomes expanded, and is ren- 
dered capable of taking liberal and com- 
prehensive views of every subject present- 
ed for contemplation. 

For this reason the study of the liberal 
sciences should be fostered, and those seats 
of learning which are erected for their ac- 
quisition should be munificently endowed. 
They are fountains of health to the young 
republic, imparting wisdom to vigour, di- 
rection to enterprise, and stability to both. 
To such wise policy, beyond doubt, Ken- 
tucky is indebted for much of her past 
greatness. The very first session she had 



89 



a representative on the floor of the Vir- 
ginia Assembly, she obtained a charter for 
a seminary of learning, and three years 
after, it went into operation under the pre- 
siding care of that venerable patriarch, the 
Rev. David Rice.* This was the germ of 
the University of Transylvania. It would 
have been a pleasing office to expatiate 
here on the early fortunes of this venera- 
ble institution, but that labour is rendered 
unnecessary. It is only a fornight since 
the subject was touched by a masterly 
hand.! 

Looking back to the middle of the last 
century, we find the southern portion of 
the American continent in the hands of 
Spain, glutting her cupidity without inter- 
ruption ; while the possession of the north- 
ern part was warmly contested by the 
great rival powers of England and France. 
The schemes which the Grand Monarque 
had formed, were truly magnificent, and 

* Bishop's Mem. of Rice, p. 97. 
t Ex-Governor Morehead, in a lecture on the Colo- 
nial History of Kentucky, read before the Institute. 

8* 



90 

with rapid strides they were approaching 
their consummation. Numerous missiona- 
ries and traders were binding the native 
tribes fast in the French interest, and a 
very httle time longer, would have seen 
the entire western country secured by a 
chain of military posts, from the Canadas 
to Louisiana. But while the French co- 
veted with such eagerness the wide and 
fertile valley west of the Alleghanies, the 
Enghsh and Anglo-Americans, but for one 
consideration, would have resigned it with 
indifference. They took up arms, not so 
much to gain a rich tract of country, as 
to prevent the proximity of dangerous 
neighbours. It is not a little remarkable, 
that at the very period when the war of 
1755 was raging, Kentucky and all the 
charming region of the Ohio, although de- 
fended with great pertinacity, appear to 
have been unknown, except to a few In- 
dian traders and Long Hunters, who had 
penetrated the wilderness above the Cum- 
berland gap, and had viewed with delight 
the landscape that stretched away toward 



91 



the setting sun, like an undulating sea of 
verdure.* 

A map, rudely constructed by Lewis 
Evans, and published in 1752,-|- seems to 
have given the first definite idea of this 
region, and, together with the reports that 
began to be circulated, inspired curiosity. 
Several exploring parties visited Kentucky; 
but no permanent settlement was effected 
till 1775. What constituted a settlement 
in those days, might, indeed, admit of con- 
troversy; as the term was applied with 
great latitude to all sorts of improvements, 
from planting corn to building stations. 

Boone commenced the fort of Boones- 
borough, on the 1st of April, 1775, as he 
himself informs us in his narrative dic- 
tated to Filson.J The same year witnessed 
the rise of Harrodsburgh, then Harrod's 
Station.^ A grave dispute has been car- 

* Itnlay's Topograph. Descr. of the West. Terr. p. 5. 
t Winterbotham's View of the U. S. vol. i. p. 170. 
\ Boone's Account, apud. Imlay, p. 343. 
§ McAfee's MS. Hist, of the Settlements on Suit 
River, p. 8. 



92 

ried on as to which can claim priority. 
Frankfort has also put in a claim, as may 
be seen on consulting the files of the 
" Commonwealth."* The battle which 
gave a name to the city of Lexington, 
was fought on April 19th of the same 
year, 1775; which gives us a clue to the 
date of its foundation. A party of sturdy 
hunters, so runs the current tradition,f had 
kindled their evening fire, and were seated 
on their buffalo robes around its cheerful 
blaze, deliberating, as may be supposed, 
upon the name by which they should de- 
signate the newly selected site, when the 
news arrived. In the enthusiasm of the 
moment, the spot was named Lexington 
by acclamation, to commemorate the im- 
portant event. Lexington throve rapidly, 
and rose to be, for a long time, the com- 
mercial and Kterary metropolis of the west. 
The first explorers of Kentucky, spread 
every where, on their return to the old 

* Commonwealth, for May 16th, 1838. 
t Flint's Hist, and Geogr. of the Miss. Vallej', vol. 
i. p. 353. 



93 



settlements, the most glowing accounts of 
what they had seen. The luxuriance of 
the soil ; the salubrity of the climate ; the 
face of the country, neither mountainous nor 
a tame level, but diversified with graceful 
undulations, like dimples on the cheek of 
beauty; the tall waving cane and native 
clover; the magnificent groves of sugar- 
tree and walnut ; the countless herds of buf- 
falo and elk; the pure and Kmpid brooks; 
the deeply channelled rivers, sweeping be- 
neath precipitous limestone cliffs, several 
hundred feet in height ; add to which, the 
verdure of the vegetation, the air loaded 
with fragrance ; the groves resonant with 
melody; and those various charms pecu- 
liar to the spring ; all conspired to invest 
the newly discovered region with an air 
of romance, that seemed to realize the 
dreams of the poets. Nature has, indeed, 
been lavish of her gifts to this favourite 
spot; and although the buffalo has long 
since disappeared, and the face of the 
country, reclaimed from a state of nature, 
exhibits few^er of those wild features which 



94 

made it so picturesque, the traveller still 
pauses to offer the tribute of his admira- 
tion. 

Upon Boone, the view burst with the 
suddenness and splendour of enchantment. 
After a dreary route through the wilder- 
ness, he descried, from an eminence near 
Red River, clothed in all the loveliness of 
spring, that extensive champaign country, 
about fifty miles square, of which Lexing- 
ton is the centre, and which comprises the 
counties of Bourbon, Scott, Woodford, 
Fayette, Jessamine, and Clarke; a body 
of land, if the united testimony of travel- 
lers may be credited, among the finest and 
most agreeable in the world. Contrasted 
with the sterile sands of North Carolina, 
which Boone had just left, it appeared, to 
use his own words, " a second paradise."* 
Imlay, Filson, and Smyth, among the 
earlier, and Flint, Hall, De la Vigne, 
Martineau, and Murray, employ language 
scarcely less glowing than Boone, and 

* Boone's Acct. apud Imlay, p. 338, 341, 343. 



95 

seem to vie with each other in searching 
for terms sufficiently eulogistic. Even the 
sober historian, Butler, is betrayed into 
hyperbole when speaking of "this great 
natural park," and styles it, emphatically, 
" the Eden of the red man."* 

Fired by the descriptions which were 
given of this delightful region, crowds 
began to flock thither from every quarter. 
The rush was unexampled. Anticipating 
such a state of things, and determining to 
take advantage of it, a bold and enter- 
prising genius arose, who conceived a 
truly magnificent project, being actuated 
partly by ambitious, partly by mercenary 
motives. This man was Col. Richard Hen- 
derson, of North Carolina. The strength 
of character and the extraordinary talent 
he displayed, as well as the grandeur of the 
plan which he matured and for a time put 
into triumphant operation, deserve a par- 
ticular notice. Without entering into the 

* Butler's Hist, of Ky. c. vi. p. 90. 



96 'fc 

details of his enterprise, which may be 
found in the histories, and more at large 
in that of Judge Hall,* we shall only sup- 
ply what is wanting in those works, a bio- 
graphical sketch of this extraordinary in- 
dividual. 

The materials for this sketch are derived 
from the Travels of J. Ferdinand D. Smyth. 
He was an EngUsh physician, whose curi- 
osity led him to travel over the United 
States ; and who, having become person- 
ally acquainted with Col. Henderson, after- 
wards paid him a visit at his settlement in 
Kentucky, a short time previous to the 
Revolutionary War. When that event 
took place, he w^as exposed to various 
perils on account of his violent Tory prin- 
ciples; but escaping from them all, he 
received a captaincy in the British service. 
He pubHshed in London, in the year 1784, 
his Travels through the United States. 
Besides the more copious materials ob- 

* Hall's Sketches of the West, vol. ii. p. 221. 



97 

tained from Smyth, Filson and Imlay 
have each furnished some hints for the 
following sketch.* 

Richard Henderson was the son of a 
poor man in the obscure settlement of 
Nutbush, in the upper part of North Caro- 
lina. He reached maturity without know- 
ing how to read or write, but by perse- 
vering application he taught himself letters 
and arithmetic. Passing through the gra- 
dations of constable, under-sheriff, and 
county-court attorney, he reached the 
superior judicature of the province; and 
upon this more conspicuous theatre, crowd- 
ed though it was with able advocates and 
brilliant orators, he fought his way to dis- 
tinction. Such were his transcendant 
abilities, that, while yet a young man, he 
was raised from the bar to the bench as 
associate judge of the province ;f and this 

* Smyth's Tour, vol. i. p. 124. By some mistake he 
calls him Nathaniel. Filson's Dlscov. of Ky. apud Im- 
lay, p. 309. Imlay, Letter I. p. 7. 

t Smyth says, "associate chief judge;" but as there 
is an obvious incongruity in the terms, I have chosen 
9 



98 

exalted station he filled with credit to him- 
self and with increasing reputation. At 
the same time he was such an agreeable 
companion, and so gay, affable, and face- 
tious in his manners, that envy was 
ashamed to show her head ; and wdth all 
his shining talents and great popularity, he 
did not provoke a single personal enemy. 

Mr. Henderson was now enjoying a 
handsome salary, but having made great 
purchases, and indulged in an expensive 
style of hving, he soon found himself 
involved beyond his means. It was then 
that his fertile genius devised a bold stroke 
for achieving at once fortune and fame. 
Under the pretext of examining some 
back lands, he secretly negotiated with the 
chiefs of the Cherokee tribe for the pur- 
chase of that vast domain embraced be- 
tween the Kentucky and Cumberland 
rivers. The famous Daniel Boone was 
his pioneer and agent; and the compact 

to call liiiu simply an associate judge, as more within 
the range of probability than that he should be the 
chief judge. 



99 

was ratified at Watauga, in March, 1775.* 
For this extensive and valuable tract of 
land, comprising in fact all that portion 
lying south of the Kentucky River, Hen- 
derson paid the Cherokees, according to 
Smith, ten wagon-loads of cheap goods, 
such as coarse woollens, trinkets, fire- 
arms, and spirits.-j- Filson estimates the 
amount at which the goods were rated, at 
£6,000 specie.J 

As soon as the transaction was ratified, 
the seal of secrecy was taken off, and 
Henderson and a company of gentlemen 
whom he associated with himself as joint 
proprietors, issued invitations to settlers. 
His next step was to vacate his seat on 
the bench, for the higher dignity of acting 
as proprietary, legislator, and governor of 
a new and prosperous colony. It was to 
no purpose that the purchase of lands from 
the Indian nations by private individuals 
was interdicted, and declared null and 

* Boone, apud Imlay, p. 344. 
t Smyth's Tour, vol. i. p. 126. 
I Filson, ut supra ^ p. 309. 



100 

void without the sanction and assent of 
the governor and assembly ; it w^as to no 
purpose that the authorities of the adjoin- 
ing provinces outlawed his person, offered 
rewards for his apprehension, and forbade 
the people to abet him. In spite of all 
efforts to thwart the scheme, it was prose- 
cuted with vigour, and by the end of the 
year, (1775,) as many as nine hundred 
entries had been registered on the books 
of the new land-office.* Henderson's 
next care was to frame a code of laws 
suitable to the time ; and a regular govern- 
ment was estabUshed under the style of 
the Colony of Transylvania, or, when 
translated into the plain vernacular, the 
Colony of the Back Woods. Within the 
space of two months from the purchase, 
a House of Delegates, duly elected, was 
organized, May 23d, 1775. Col. Thomas 
Slaughter was chosen chairman, Matthew 
Jewett, clerk, Rev. John Lythe, chaplain, 
and Robert McAfee, sergeant-at-arms. 

* Hall's Sketches, Appendix, vol. ii. p. 242. 



101 

The House being duly organized, notice 
was carried in form to Col. Henderson, 
whereupon he was pleased to give his 
gracious assent to the proceedings ; and 
then, with as punctilious observance of 
form, he met the body in person, and 
in his own name and that of the joint 
proprietors, opened the convention with 
a speech.* 

The growing dissatisfaction of the com- 
munity at large, the great political changes 
which ended in our national independence, 
and above all, the jealousy of the Virginia 
Assembly, ere long put a stop to the pro- 
ject. The Transylvania Company were 
forced to relinquish their title in 1781, but 
were indemnified for the disappointment 
by receiving in lieu from the government 
of Virginia, the grant of a large tract of 
land of Col. Henderson's own selection, 
of two hundred thousand acres, or twelve 
miles square, between the forks of the Ohio 

* Hall, vol. i. c. ill. p. 264. 
9* 



102 

and Green rivers.* It is at present included 
in the county of Henderson, which name 
was given in honour of the man who had 
been the life and soul of the enterprise. 
North Carolina also granted them a like 
quantity of land in Powell's Valley. Thus 
ended, after six years' duration, this splen- 
did essay at proprietary government; in 
which we are at a loss which to admire 
most, the enterprise of the self-taught and 
strong-minded man who was its author; 
the grandeur of the plan which he pro- 
jected ; or the wisdom which presided 
over its execution. 

Among the early settlers of Kentucky, 
the MAfee Company deserves a distinct 
notice ; and their various adventures and 
perils may serve as a lively specimen of 
the extremities to which the colonists were 
often reduced. The materials from which 
the following description is prepared, are 
contained in a bulky MS. volume, enti- 

* Imlay, Lett. I. p. 8. Filson, ut supra, p. 309. 



103 

tied " The History of the Rise and Progress 
of the First Settlements on Salt River, 
and Establishment of the New Providence 
Church.'' This volume has been labori- 
ously compiled from original and authentic 
documents, by General Robert B. M'Afee, 
of Mercer county, formerly Lieutenant 
Governor of the State, and author of a 
History of the late War. No liberties have 
been taken with the narrative, except such 
as have been rendered unavoidable, by the 
necessity of compressing portions of it into 
a reasonable compass for the present oc- 
casion. 

Inflamed by the reports of the Indians 
and hunters, a company of five men left 
their homes near Sinking Spring, Botetourt 
county, in the Valley of Virginia, on May 
10th, 1773, to explore the western wilds, 
with a double view to future residence and 
to distinction as the first adventurers. These 
persons were James, George, and Robert 
M'Afee, James M'Coun, sen., and Samuel 
Adams; all, except the last named, who 
was a mere stripling, heads of families 



104 



and all men of good character and reli- 
gious principles. 

Their meeting with Bullitt and Taylor 
the surveyors ; the talk with the Shawnee 
.Chiefs ; their visit to the Big Bone Lick, 
which an old Cherokee told them was in 
the same state in his youth, and about 
which he could communicate no further 
information; the surveys which they made; 
and their route from the mouth of the Ken- 
tucky to Frankfort and Salt River, which 
are minutely detailed, we shall pass over. 
Suffice it to say, that surveys were made 
for them at various points, closing in the 
vicinity of Harrodsburgh; and on July 31st, 
they turned their faces homeward. They 
proceeded under showers of rain, and 
suffering various hardships. When they 
reached the foot of the mountains, their 
stock of provisions failed, and game was 
difficult to procure. To cross the moun- 
tains proved likewise a very laborious 
undertaking, covered as they were with 
laurel, underbrush, and pine. 

The 12th of August was a gloomy day 



105 

to this little band. They had gained the 
highest point of the craggy range dividing 
the head waters of the Kentucky and 
Clinch rivers ; a region that seemed the 
abode of desolation. Nothing but barren 
rocks frowned on every side, and silence 
and solitude reigned uninterrupted. Not 
a living animal was to be seen, nor a bird 
to cheer them with its wild notes. They 
were exposed to a broiling sun ; their feet 
were blistered; and their legs were torn 
and raw from the effect of the briers ; add 
to which, they were literally starving, not 
having had a mouthful to eat for two 
days. Such a combination of misfortunes 
was enough to appal the stoutest heart. 

The day was drawing to a close; the 
sun was sinking in the west, and gilding 
the mountain's top with his last setting 
beams ; they had not as yet seen a soli- 
tary animal that could serve for food ; and 
the herbage was not only scanty but unfit 
for sustenance. To complete their dis- 
tress, they found the head-springs of the 
water-courses dried up by the excessive 



100 

heat, and not affording a drop to allay 
their thirst. Exhausted by fatigue, hunger, 
and despair, George M'Afee and young 
Adams threw themselves on the ground, 
declaring themselves unable to proceed 
any farther. As a last desperate effort, 
Robert M'Afee then determined to com- 
pass the ridge in quest of game, leaving 
James with the two others to rally their 
spirits. He had not proceeded a quarter 
of a mile, when a young buck crossed his 
path; and although agitated by intensely 
anxious feelings, he was so good a marks- 
man as to bring him down at the first shot. 
On hearing the report of his gun, the rest 
of the company, forgetting their fatigue, 
sprang up, and ran to the spot whence the 
sound proceeded. The meal, thus oppor- 
tunely furnished, they devoured with keen 
appetites, and slaked their thirst from a 
branch which they discovered adjacent; 
while their hearts overflowed with grati- 
tude to that Providence, which, by so 
timely an interposition, had rescued them 
from the jaws of death. Recruited in 



107 

strength, they resumed their journey, and 
soon reached their homes ; where, in spite 
of the hardships and hazards attending the 
exploit, the accounts they pubUshed in- 
spired a general enthusiasm to imitate 
their example. 

Indian wars and the battle of Kenhawa, 
detained them in Virginia during the suc- 
ceeding year; but the year 1775 found 
them among the canebrakes. Robert, 
Samuel, and WilUam M'Afee, allowed 
themselves to be persuaded by Col. Hen- 
derson to unite their fortunes with his, 
against the wholesome advice of their 
elder brother James^ who assured them that 
Henderson's claim could not be valid, be- 
cause without the sanction of government. 
They went to Boonesborough, entered land 
and raised corn, but, as was predicted, the 
scheme proved abortive. In the fall, we 
find the company reunited, consisting of 
William, George, and Robert M'Afee, Geo. 
M'Gee, David Adams, John M'Coun, and 
some others, and under the protection of 
the newly erected Harrod's Station, they 



108 

cleared fifteen acres of ground below the 
mouth of Armstrong's Branch, in Mercer 
county, and planted it in corn. A part of 
the company wintered here, while the rest 
went back to Virginia, leaving forty head 
of cattle to fatten on the luxuriant cane 
and herbage. These last mentioned per- 
sons took measures to return in the spring 
following, calculating that the corn and 
cattle would, by this time, be in a condi- 
tion to support them. 

Accordingly, in May, 1776, they packed 
up their household property and farming 
utensils, with a quantity of seeds of various 
kinds, barrels of corn and flour, and stores 
of coffee, sugar, and spices, not omitting 
a few bottles of whisky and spirits, {hy 
loay of medicine, no doubt,) which they 
placed, for security, in the middle of the 
flour and corn barrels, and attempted to 
convey them in canoes down the Gauley 
and Kenhawa rivers ; but finding this im- 
practicable, they resolved to go back for 
pack horses. Having built a strong log 
cabin, resembling the caches described by 



109 

Washington Irving in his Astoria, as used 
by the fur-traders, they deposited in it all 
their property, and covering it with bark, 
left it in this situation in the wilderness. 
The rumour of hostihties, and the war of 
the Revolution caused a delay of several 
months; and when they returned in Sep- 
tember, they found the cache, to their dis- 
may, broken open, the roof torn off, and 
rugs, blankets, barrels, and stores, strewed 
in confusion around, and totally ruined. 
On making some search^ they found evi- 
dences of some one having taken out the 
bedding to sleep on, under an adjacent 
cliff, and that the same person had rum- 
maged their kegs and barrels, in order to 
get at the liquor. 

No Indian sign, as the traces of the 
savages were called, was visible; but upon 
searching by parties of two, they found, 
within half a mile of the spot, a dimi- 
nutive red-haired man, on whose person 
they discovered sqme of the missing arti- 
cles. Vexed at the wanton destruction of 
so many valuable stores of coffee, sugar, 
10 



110 

spices, and the like articles, which they 
had been for years collecting, at a time 
too, when they w^ere so much needed, and 
could not be replaced where they were 
going; and provoked beyond endurance 
by the wretch's denial, although proofs 
were on his person, one of the party felled 
him to the ground with his tomahawk, and 
was on the point of despatching him with 
his knife, when his brother seized his arm 
and prevented the rash act. 

The fellow's name was Edward Som- 
mers. He was a convict servant, who 
had run off from his master in the interior 
of Virginia, and was making the best of 
his way to the Indians. As soon as he 
recovered from the stunning effect of the 
blow he had received, he was led to the 
cabin, where a council was held upon the 
ease. He was adjudged to have forfeited 
his life according to the laws of the land, 
but as none of the company was willing 
to execute the hangman's office, the mise- 
rable \Vretch escaped with his life. He 
was compelled, however, to accompany 



Ill 

them back to Virginia, where he was de- 
livered up into the hands of his master, 
and very probably received such a scourg- 
ing as made him more desirous to run 
away than ever. 

The war with Great Britain, in which 
the members of this company and all their 
connexions heartily united, hindered the 
resumption of their darling project for the 
next two years, during which time the 
cattle they had imported ran wild in the 
woods, or fell the prey of Indian marau- 
ders, and were irrecoverably lost. 

The year 1779 saw these enterprising 
adventurers settled with their families on 
their new territory, having passed the 
Cumberland Gap with pack-horses. Their 
first care w^as to fortify themselves in a 
quadrangular enclosure of cabins and 
stockades, to which was given the name 
of McAfee's Station. A winter of unex- 
ampled severity ensued; and from the 
middle of November to the middle of 
February, snow and ice continued on the 
ground without a thaw. Many of the 



112 

cattle perished ; and numbers of bears, 
buffalo, deer, wolves, beavers, otters, and 
wild turkeys, were found frozen to death. 
Sonaetimes the famished wild animals 
would come up in the yard of the stations 
along with the tame cattle. Such w\as the 
scarcity of food, that a single johnny-cake 
would be divided into a dozen parts, and 
distributed round to the inmates, to serve 
for two meals. Even this resource failed, 
and for weeks they had nothing to live 
upon but wild game. Early in the spring, 
some of the men went to the Falls of the 
Ohio, now Louisville, where they gave 
sixty dollars (continental money) for a 
bushel of corn ; which was considered an 
enormous price, even making allowance 
for its depreciated value ; but the only 
alternative was starvation. 

A delightful spring, and the rapid growth 
of vegetation, promised to repay them for 
the hardships they had undergone. The 
peach-trees they had planted five years 
before, were loaded with fruit, and the 
apple-trees were also in a thriving con- 



113 



dition. Plenty and happiness smiled upon 
the settlement, when, by one of those 
unexpected reverses, which seem designed 
by Providence to admonish us of what we 
are too apt to forget, the uncertain tenure 
of our earthly prosperity, and the small 
reliance to be placed upon present appear- 
ances, their flattering prospects w^ere all at 
once damped by a melancholy event that 
filled every heart with gloom. 

Joseph McCoun, a promising lad, the 
youngest and the dading son of his father, 
and the favourite of the whole family, was 
surprised and carried off by a party of 
Shawanoe Indians, while looking after 
some cattle in an adjoining glade. His 
companion escaped, and immediately gave 
the alarm ; but pursuit w^as vain. The 
savages carried their unhappy victim to 
a little town on the head waters of Mad 
River, about six miles above the spot now 
occupied by the town of Springfield, Ohio, 
where they tied him to a stake and burned 
him with excruciating tortures. After 
this heart-rending event, which took place 
10* 



114 

in March, 1781, the famiUes, seven in 
number, abandoned the farms they had 
been cultivating, and took refuge in the 
station. This step was rendered abso- 
lutely necessary, for the Indians were 
prowHng in every direction, stealing 
horses, attacking the armed companies 
that passed from one station to another, 
and killing and scalping every unfortunate 
straggler that fell into their hands. The 
expedition under General George Rogers 
Clarke, in which the men of the Salt 
River settlement, burning for vengeance, 
participated, daunted them for a time, 
and restored quiet. 

Not confining their operations to small 
predatory parties, upon the 9th of May, 
1781, a band of one hundred and fifty 
Shawnees, or Shawanoes, made a des- 
perate attack on M'Afee's station, about 
an hour before sunrise. As Indian skir- 
mishes and bush-fighting have become too 
familiar topics to need description, I shall 
omit the details given in the MS. The 
inquisitive reader, however, will find a 



115 j 

i 
short but graphic sketch of the prelimi- i 
nary skirmishing in Mr. McClung's highly j 
interesting and elegantly written volume, J 
entitled "Sketches of Western Adven- j 
ture."* I shall content myself with sup- 
plying an incident or two out of the j 
JVPAfee MS. of which Mr. McClung has i 
made no mention, and of w^iich he was \ 
probably not aware. 

A well-directed fire from the beleaguer- 
ed garrison kept the marauders- at bay, 
while the women and children were busily 
engaged in running bullets and carrying 
ammunition. Every man behaved with { 
the utmost intrepidity, except one, whose ' 
name is suppressed by the historian, no 
doubt out of tenderness to his surviving 
relatives, and the blank is filled with 
the charitable words, " Peace he to his 
ashes P^ This faint-hearted wretch crept ■ 
under the bed and hid himself, until his i 
wife, indignant at his pusillanimity, forced j 
him out from his retreat. Baffled in their \ 

1 

* McClung's Sketches, p, 154. | 



110 

attempt, the malignant savages destroyed 
all the cattle and hogs within their reach, 
and precipitately decamped. Had they 
remained ten minutes longer, they would 
have found themselves attacked in their 
rear by a reinforcement of forty men 
from Harrodsburgh, under Col. McGary, 
who had been summoned by an express 
on the first alarm. Finding the ground 
clear, they all immediately started in pur- 
suit of the enemy, whom they overtook 
and completely routed. Thus ended a 
very remarkable adventure, in which 
thirteen men succeeded in repulsing a 
party of one hundred and fifty Indians. 
The narrator indeed says " thirteen men,^' 
but if through inadvertence he included 
that thing that was undeserving of the 
name of man, then the odds was still 
greater, only twelve men against one 
hundred and fifty. However, as the wife 
was undoubtedly the best man of the two, 
the complement may be made up by 
admitting her as a substitute. 

The insecurity of the settlers, and the 



117 

hazards to which they were exposed 
about this period, appear to have been 
very great. There was no communica- 
tion between the stations, of which there 
were now several, except by armed com- 
panies. The inhabitants, not daring to 
spend the night out of the forts, cultivated 
their corn during the day with the hoe in 
one hand and a gun in the other. A large 
party went one morning to a neighbouring 
plantation to assist in pulling flax, a friendly 
office always cheerfully tendered, but were 
unconsciously waylaid by eight or nine In- 
dians. The wily savages, afraid to make 
an open attack, cut down bushes, and con- 
structed a screen in a fit situation for an 
ambuscade, so that no one would be able 
to discover them till within a few yards. 
Behind this leafy screen they lay, watch- 
ing for the return of their unsuspecting 
victims, and anticipating with savage 
eagerness the pleasure of scalping the 
whole party. But Providence ordered 
otherwise. One of the young men (John 
McCoun, Jr.) proposed to his companions, 



118 

on their way homeward, to deviate a httle 
for the sake of gathering plums, a quan- 
tity of which grew at no great distance. 
As the sun was not yet down, they con- 
sented ; and in consequence of this happy 
suggestion, they reached home by a more 
circuitous but safer route. We may ima- 
gine the mingled amazement and delight 
with which they discovered next day what 
an escape they had had from imminent 
danger. The deserted blind, and the spot 
where the Indians lay, till their impatience 
and chagrin became insupportable, were 
objects of curiosity for several years. 
Surprise, however, was not the only emo- 
tion excited on this occasion ; it is gratify- 
ing to be able to add, that a deep and 
salutary impression was made on the 
whole party, of the obligations under 
which they were placed to Providence 
for so signal a deliverance. 

And it may be here mentioned to the 
credit of the M'Afees and M'Couns, that 
when a few years after they erected a 
rural church in their settlement, (the same 



119 

over which the venerable Dr. Cleland now 
presides,) mindful of the frequent interpo- 
sitions of benignant Heaven in their favour, 
from the relief on the Alleghany mountains 
through the entire progress of their history, 
they gave it the appropriate name of Pro- 
vidence Church- Who can doubt that from 
this humble structure built of logs, this 
church in the v/oods, the hymn and the 
prayer went up, as acceptable to the ear 
of the Almighty, as though it had been one 
of those stately and elegant temples which 
have been reared in later years, attesting, 
if not the increased devotion, at least the 
increased wealth of the West. 

The incursions of the savages gradually 
diminished from this period, as the country 
was more and more occupied by numerous 
emigrants, or Long Knives ^ as the Indians 
termed the whites. The M' Afee Station, Hke 
all the others, became a prominent centre 
of population, and was looked up to as 
one of the main props of the country. 
Grist-mills began now to be erected ; im- 
provements of all kinds were projected ; 



120 

and uninterrupted prosperity finally crown- 
ed the enterprising pioneers. Having men- 
tioned grist-nnills, it may not be amiss to 
relate, out of the MS., how their grain 
had been ground hitherto. Hand-mills were 
in use, of a primitive and almost oriental 
character, consisting of a pair of slabs 
of limestone, about two feet in diameter, 
which were placed in a hollow tree, gene- 
rally sycamore or gum ; and every morn- 
ing each family ground as much as would 
supply them for the day. 

Here w^e shall take leave of the M'Afee 
Company. Their hardships, enterprise, pe- 
rils, and success, of which we have given 
a sketch, may be assumed to be a fair 
specimen of what fell to the lot of the 
other adventurers who entered Kentucky 
at the same period, and through whose 
persevering efforts the forest and the cane- 
brake soon disappeared before the axe and 
the plough. 

It would be a great mistake to suppose 
that the early settlers were a melancholy 
and unhappy set of men. On the con- 



121 

trary, this wild sylvan life had surprising 
charms ; its independence was agreeable, 
and habit made its excitement necessary. 
Many social conveniences they gave up; 
quiet and ease were unknown; appalling 
perils environed them ; and they saw many 
a friend and kinsman laid low by bloody 
deaths : yet so far from being dispirited, 
or renouncing the wilderness in disgust, 
their spirits rebounded with greater elas- 
ticity, and a cheerful fortitude never de- 
serted them. A moment's reflection will 
prevent our being surprised that this was 
the case; famiharity with danger lessens 
its terrors, and the heaviest misfortunes 
are often those which are borne with the 
greatest firmness. Certain it is, that their 
impressions, whether devout or sorrowful, 
were but transient in their duration ; and 
even when shut up in the narrow limits of 
their forts, they were not without their 
jovial recreations. While the old hunters 
discussed the exploits of some noted Indian 
fighter over a glass of grog, the young 
people spent the evening in carolling and 
11 



122 

dancing, and all the festal hilarity their 
circumstances would admit. 

Besides the inviting character of the 
new Hesperia, the easy terms on which 
land could be procured, gave an additional 
stimulus to emigration. The Virginia pa- 
tents were of three classes; pre-emption 
rights, military grants, and warrants from 
the land-office.* The last were issued 
with inconsiderate profuseness ; and al- 
though most of the valuable land was 
already taken up by the holders of the 
other patents, more w^arrants were in a 
short time issued, as Captain Imlay, him- 
self a land commissioner, assures us, than 
would have covered half the territory 
within the limits of the district.f The 
natural consequence was land-jobbing, 
litigation, and heart-burnings between fa- 
milies for years. 

" Our agriculture," said the Hon. Chilton 
Allan in his address before the State Agri- 
cultural Society, " our agriculture was re- 

* Filson, ut supra, p. 326. f Imlay, note, p. 8. 



12'J 



tarded for thirty years in the adjustment of 
conflicting land-claims."* The business 
of land-jobbing became a profitable source 
of speculation across the Atlantic, and the 
" Mercuries" of those days contained ad- 
vertisements of immense tracts in Ame- 
rica oflfered for sale. The plots were 
embellished with the greatest elegance ; 
they had for corner trees specimens of 
those kinds only that are known to grow 
in the richest bottom-lands, and they were 
adorned with fine groves, meadows, water- 
courses, and mill-seats, " where," Captain 
Imlay quaintly remarks, "perhaps there 
will not be a grain of corn for half a cen- 
tury to come."f The devices of modern 
schemers may be found anticipated in the 
pages of this author, who has given en- 
graved plans of several towns then pro- 
jected, laid off with all the formal pomp of 
streets, and squares, and public buildings, 

* Obs. and Rep. vol. vii. for 1838. See also Butler's 
Hist, of Ky. p. 138. 
t Imlay, note, p. 9. 



124 

which, unfortunately, to this day exist only 
on paper. 

In spite of danger, distance, and fatigue, 
and all the discomforts incident to a new 
country, the tide continued to flow without 
an ebb. A curious paper is extant in 
Matthew Carey's American Museum for 
1789,* in which the writer draws an ela- 
borate comparison between the advantages 
of settling in Kentucky, and settling on the 
new lands towards the sources of the Dela-. 
ware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna rivers. 
Among the many disadvantages enume- 
rated, he tells the reader that wheat is ten 
pence per bushel in Kentucky, and a 
blanket costs half a guinea. Of what ad- 
vantage, he then asks, is a rich tract of 
land, if it takes the price of twenty bushels 
of wheat to buy a small coarse blanket, 
ten times the cost at which it could be pro- 
cured in the quarter he so warmly recom- 
mends. But fruitless were all such dis- 
suasives ; the winds would have been 
better auditors. Nothing could stop the 

* Amer. Mus. vol. v. p. .59. 



current that was setting strongly and stea- 
dily westward. 

Some scattered statistics of those times, 
gleaned from various sources, will give an 
idea of the rapidity with which Kentucky 
was peopled. The years 1779 and 1780, 
it was believed, brought twenty thousand 
persons into the district ;* and in the latter 
year, three hundred families were said to 
have entered at a single point on the Ohio.f 
In 1784, not less than twelve thousand 
persons became residents, j In 1785, but 
ten years from the first stroke of the pick- 
axe at Boonsborough, the inhabitants were 
so numerous as to meet in convention with 
a view to a separate state organization.^ 
In 1790, the total population amounted to 
seventy-three thousand, six hundred and 
seventy-seven. II In the single year 1794, 
fourteen thousand persons more were re- 
ported to have emigrated.^ Originally a 

* M'Afee's MS. Hist. p. 10. § Imlay, p. 17. 

t Butler, c. vi. p. 99. (] Butler, c. xiv. p. 241. 

t Imlay, Lett. II. p. 16, 11 Imlay, Lett. VIL p. 173. 

11* 



126 

part of Fincastle. County, Virginia, Ken- 
tucky County was set off by itself in 1776, 
with a municipal court;* in 1780, it was 
erected into a dislricU embracing three 
counties, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette ;f 
and finally, Kentucky took her place as a 
sovereign state, and a member of the Union, 
June 1st, 1792 ;J only seventeen years from 
the first settlement of Boonsborough. 

These extraordinary events did not take 
place, as is notorious, without opposition. 
Kentucky, inhabited by none of the Indian 
tribes, and exhibiting no traces of their 
villages, had been regarded as the common 
hunting-ground and battle-ground of all. 
Here the Cherokee of the south, and the 
Miami of the North resorted to pursue the 
chase, and often the buffalo visited the lick 
in safety, and the elk leaped upon the 
mountain, while the painted savages turn- 
ed their deadly weapons against each 
other.§ The very name, Kentucky, or 

» Butler, c. vi. p. 89. t Butler, c. xii. p. 211. 

t Butler, c. viii. p. 118. ^ Butler, c. i. p. 9. 



127 



Can-tuck'kee, pronounced with a strong 
emphasis, is said to owe its origin to the 
country having been the arena of frequent 
conflicts ; being interpreted by some, The 
Middle Ground, but most commonly, The 
Bark and Bloody Ground.* There are 
not wanting, however, those who derive 
the name from our principal river ;f but 
this may be doubted, as the river was 
known by other names, being called in 
Donaldson's survey, the Louisa,\ which 
appears to have been the English name ; 
or as in the M'Afee MS. the Levisa ;§ 
and by the Indians, the Cuttawa, as appears 
from Evans' map, and Wayne's treaty. || 
Mr. Butler candidly acknowledges, that, 
with all the aid he could procure from per- 
sons familiar with the aboriginal languages, 
he was unable to trace the true etymo- 
logy.m 

* Filson, ut supra, p. 308. § M'Afee's MS. Hist. p. 4. 
t Imlay, Lett. I. p. 6. |! Butler, c. viii. p. 132. 

I Hall, vol. i. p. 248. IT lb. 



128 

However this may be, the forewarning 
of the old Cherokee chief was amply veri- 
fied, when he said to Boone, as he took 
him by the hand at the signing of Hen- 
derson's deed, " Brother, we have given 
you a fine land, but I believe you will have 
much trouble in settling it."* 

It is true, and it deserves to be recol- 
lected, that the whole territory was at va- 
rious times fairly purchased of the Indians, 
and this over and over again ; for the 
government of Virginia wisely pursued 
the policy of merging all adverse titles in 
her own, instead of contesting them. Thus 
the treaty of Fort Stanwix, negotiated by 
Sir WilUam Johnson in 1768, between 
Great Britain and the Six Nations, or, as 
they are sometimes called, the Five Na- 
tions, embraced in its purchase all the 
lands lying between the Ohio and Ken- 
tucky rivers.f In 1770, Virginia resolved 

* Boone's Acct. ut supra, p. 358. 
t Imlay, p. 6. Hall, vol. i. p. 247. Filson, ul supra, 
p. 309. 



129 

to extinguish the title of the Cherokees in 
the Holston and CHnch settlements, as em- 
braced within a line from six miles above 
Long Island on Holston river to the mouth 
of the Great Kenhawa. Colonel Donald- 
son, the surveyor, finding that an extensive 
and valuable tract would thus be cut off 
to the Indians, took the responsibility of 
making the Kentucky river the western 
boundary.* For this extension of the ceded 
territory, the Cherokees agreed to receive 
£2500 sterling, instead of the £500, of the 
original contract.f This purchase the As- 
sembly of Virginia at first refused to con- 
firm, but after awhile, becoming alarmed 
at Henderson's movements, they consented 
to pay the amount promised by Colonel 
Donaldson. Thus the northern half of 
Kentucky was twice paid for ; although it 
may be a grave matter of doubt, whether 
either of the sellers, the Five Nations, or 
the Cherokees, had any valid title them- 

* Filson, p. 309. t Hall, vol. i. p. 248. 



130 

selves to the soil. As for the lands lying 
south of the Kentucky river, we have al- 
ready seen that Colonel Henderson bought 
them in 1775, of the Cherokees, for the 
estimated value of £6000 specie, of which 
Virginia assumed the ownership in 1781, 
after reserving to him a grant of twelve 
miles square.* 

Thus it is perfectly clear, that the do- 
main of Kentucky, from the mouth of the 
Kenhawa to the mouth of Cumberland, 
including the lands on both sides of the 
intervening Kentucky river, was fairly 
purchased, and the Indian title completely 
extinguished. Whatever reproaches, there- 
fore, may be launched against Indian spo- 
liation, this State is clear of the wrong. 
Not a solitary wigwam was ever burned 
on her soil, nor a single red man expa- 
triated by her encroachments ; while the 
half-naked children of the forest gravely 
pretended to barter with the British, the 

* Filson, p. 309. 



181 

Carolinians, and the Virginians, succes- 
sively, for the purchase of lands, to not a 
foot of which had they any better title 
than the whites themselves. 

Notwithstanding all these negotiations, 
the savages were incensed at seeing their 
beautiful hunting-grounds occupied by 
strangers ; and nothing, it appears, vexed 
them more than the erection of buildings. 
They made perpetual inroads, and were 
extirpated only after repeated and des- 
perate struggles. 

The following anecdote wdll illustrate 
the precarious situation of the inhabitants, 
and the methods they were compelled to 
adopt for their protection. A person by 
the name of Cleaveland, w^ho lived on one 
of the bends of the Kentucky, kept a dozen 
or twenty large bloodhounds on account of 
the Indians. As it was very hazardous 
for a stranger to venture among them, a 
ladder was planted against a tree at a 
convenient distance from the dwelling, and 
a horn was suspended from one of the 



132 

limbs. Every stranger must climb this 
ladder, and give a signal of his approach 
by winding the horn ; when the pack were 
tied up, and he could enter in safety. The 
venerable Col. Payne, of Fayette, informed 
the w^riter, that being once on a visit to 
this individual, his Kfe was placed in immi- 
nent danger. All the formalities had been 
observed, and the horn duly sounded, and 
the pack tied up, and the company seated 
at dinner ; when one of the bloodhounds, 
that had either been absent or had slipped 
his fastenings, scented the intrusion of a 
stranger, and came bounding into the 
apartment with eyes of flame. The fu- 
rious animal rushed past every one that 
stood in his way, and was just on the 
point of springing over the table at Col. 
Payne's throat, when the host, with great 
promptness and presence of mind, caught 
the animal in his arms, and held him till 
he could be chained. As the Indians had 
now ceased to be formidable, and the 
hounds gave more trouble than benefit, 



133 

the owner, after this occurrence, had them 
all put out of the way. 

No border annals teem with more thrill- 
ing incidents and heroic exploits than 
those of the Kentucky hunters, of which 
Mr. M'Clung has collected a highly 
interesting volume. Their very name 
struck terror into the heart of the stoutest 
savage. Well did the soil earn the em- 
phatic title by which it has been desig- 
nated. And it may be added, as if the 
prosperity was engendered by the soil or 
the climate, it has not unfrequently since 
been characteristic of Kentucky to be the 
arena of personal, political, and ecclesias- 
tical conflicts, more severely contested, 
and more intensely exciting, than any 
other part of the Union has witnessed. 

Seldom has a country been peopled 
under circumstances so auspicious to the 
formation of a bold, independent, mag- 
nanimous character. With the exception 
of an inconsiderable number from North 
Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 
12 



134 

other quarters, the great body of settlers 
was furnished by Virginia. Thus a homo- 
geneous population sprung up, modified by 
none of those mixtures that entered into 
the composition of other States of the 
west, and presenting a favourable speci- 
men of native American character. The 
movement, as a popular writer has hap- 
pily styled it, was regarded rather as an 
expansion of the Old Dominion, than as 
the founding of a new colony.* It was 
only considered in the light of a removal 
from a settled to an unsettled section of 
their native State. Expatriation and emi- 
gration were ideas alike foreign from their 
thoughts. They cherished the feelings 
and the name of Virginians, and to this 
day their children are proud of such an 
extraction. A frank hospitality, a manly 
bearing, and an irrepressible love of ad- 
venture, are characteristics which une- 
quivocally, as well now as formerly, indi- 

* Hall, vol. ii. p. 94. 



135 

cate their parentage.* This remark is 
more appHcable to the country than the 
towns ; for there is something in the 
nature and operation of town Hfe that 
makes one citizen very much a fac simile 
of another. It is to the rural districts in 
every country that a stranger must look 
for the original native manners of the 
inhabitants. 

The mihtary grants brought a number 
of gallant officers to Kentucky, who had 
served in the war of the revolution, many 
of whom were in easy circumstances, and 
whose superior education and intelligence, 
naturally caused them to be regarded as 
leaders and as models; and their influ- 
ence, to, which we must join the early 
introduction of female society, gave tone 
to the manners of the rising community, 
and prevented that rudeness to which the 



* Irnlay, Lett. VII. p. 170. Filson, p. 321. Flint's 
Ten Years' Recoil. Lett. IX. p. 63, 71. Hall, vol. ii. 
p. 96. 



136 

unchecked hunter-state would probably 
have led.* 

The stirring nature of the times ; the 
free discussion of momentous political 
questions ; the frequent conventions of the 
people; and the being left to fight their 
own battles and mould their own institu- 
tions, without interference or co-operation 
from other quarters; generated an acute- 
ness of intellect and a habit of independent 
thinking, that hesitate not to grapple with 
any difficulty upon any subject. The pre- 
dominant characteristic of Western mind 
has thus come to be a high degree of 
activity; an activity that is incessantly 
restless about something whether good or 
evil, and if not about good, then about 
evil rather than not be busy; an activity 
that v^^ill take no opinion on trust, but 
vigorously examines every subject for 
itself; an activity that will brook no con- 
trol; that must w^alk abroad chainless and 

*Imlay, Lett. VII. p. 168, 170. 



137 

untrammelled ; that laughs at caution, and 
is a stranger to fear. The cry that peals 
along the western waters is its appropriate 
watchword. When once the steam is up, 
impatience frets at every moment's delay; 
danger, prudence, calculation, are all for- 
gotten ; " Go Ahead !" is the general cry. 
While the impetuous impulse lasts, it car- 
ries every thing before it : 

" It comes as the winds come. 
When forests are rended ; 
It comes as the waves come, 
When navies are stranded." 

Could this enthusiasm only be kept from 
subsiding, and the powerful engine regu- 
larly and perseveringly supplied with fuel, 
there is nothing that Western mind could 
not accomplish. One thing is undeniable ; 
whoever would make an impression upon 
the Kentuckians, must strike ivhile the iron 
is hot. 

Scions of a noble stock, reared in the 
storm, and sustained by their own vigour, 
12* 



138 



it is not surprising that their strength of 
character should give them a predominant 
influence among the younger colonies of 
the Great Valley. The men that scaled 
the AUeghanies were no common men ; 
they were young or in the prime of hfe ; 
of small education indeed, but robust, 
shrewd, and enterprising. Kentucky has 
been justly styled the Mother of the West.* 
Not only was she the State first settled ; 
her sons have been every where foremost ; 
and their easy confidence and native en- 
thusiasm conduct them at once to emi- 
nence, while tardier spirits are balancing 
the chances of success. The distinguished 
author of the Ten Years' Recollections, 
whose extensive travels qualified him to 
judge, observed every where the traces of 
this empire over the habits, sentiments, 
and institutions of the West; and he as- 
sures us, that from the Falls of St. Anthony 
to the Gulf of Mexico, to have been born 

* Flint's Recoil. Lett. X. p. 73. Butler, c. i. p. 17. 



139 

and reared in Kentucky, constituted a 
recommendation to the highest offices, as 
potent as the prescription claim which 
birth in Old Spain used to confer in her 
colonies.* 

Such is the commanding position of the 
State, of whose early beginnings we have 
taken a retrospect. The seed planted with 
difficulty and watered with blood, has 
taken deep root in the prolific soil; it has 
shot forth its goodly branches, and filled 
the whole valley, and the hills on either 
hand are covered by its shadow. Cradled 
between the Alleghanies on the one hand 
and the Rocky Mountains on the other, 
lies a young giant, about to rise in the 
greatness of his strength, and wield ere 
long a tremendous and incalculable energy, 
raising the glory of the Republic to its 
proudest height, or trampling its dearest 
hopes beneath his ruthless strides. 

That this is not a random statement, or 

* Flint, ut svpra. 



140 

an empty rhetorical flourish, will be evident 
from the accompanying statistical table. 
I am indebted to Joseph Ficklin, Esq. for 
this interesting document, which he was 
so kind as to draw up from memory at 
my request. 



141 



A LIST 



OF DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS OF KENTUCKY, WHO HAVE 
FILLED HIGH AND RESPONSIBLE STATIONS UNDER THE 
UNITED .STATES GOVERNMENT, OR UNDER THE GOVERN- 
MENTS OF OTHER STATES OF THE UNION, KENTUCKY 
ITSELF BEING EXCLUDED. 

GOVERNORS AND LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS. 



Names. 


From whence. 


Where stationed. 


Mr. Tichener, 


Bourbon Co. 


Gov. of Ohio. 


Ninian Edwards, 


Logan Co. 


Gov. of Illinois. 


Benj. Howard, 


Fayette Co. 


Gov. of Missouri. 


William Clarke, 


Jefferson Co. 


Gov. of Missouri. 


John Pope, 


Washington Co, Gov. of Arkansas. 


J. T. Mason, Jr. 


Fayette Co. 


Gov. of Michigan. 


Joseph M. White, 


Franklin Co. 


Gov. of Florida. 


Richard Call, 


Logan Co. 


Gov. of Florida. 


Lilburn Boggs, 


Fayette Co. 


Gov. of Missouri. 


John M'Lean, 


Logan Co. 


Gov. of Illinois, 


Henry Dodge, 


Jefferson Co 


Gov. of Wisconsin 


John Ray, 


Boone Co. 


Gov. of Indiana. 


Mr. Carlin, 


Nelson Co. 


Gov. of Illinois. 



142 



Names. 
John Dunklin, 
C. W. Bird, 
James Brown, 
Robt. Crittenden, 
Mr. Step, 
Mr. Ewing, 
Mr, Hubbard, 
Ratliffe Boon, 



From whence. 
Mercer Co. 
Fayette Co. 
Lexington, 
Logan Co. 
Scott Co, 
Logan Co. 
Warren Co, 
Mercer Co, 



Where stationed. 
Gov, of Missouri, 
Gov, N, W. Ter, 
Lt, Gov, of Louisiana. 
Acting Gov, Arkansas. 
Lt, Gov, Indiana. 
Lt. Gov. Illinois. 
Lt. Gov. Illinois. 
Lt, Gov. Indiana, 



AMBASSADORS, FOREIGN MINISTERS, ETC 

Henry Clay, Lexington, Min. Ex, to Ghent. 

James Brown, Lexington, 

Wm, T, Barry, Lexington, 

James Shannon, Lexington, 

JV. Edwards, Logan Co, 

Thos. P, Moore, Mercer Co. 

Robt, B. M'Afee, Logan Co. 

Anthony Butler, Logan Co. 

Peter W. Grayson, Fayette Co, 

VICE-PRESIDENT. 

R. M. Johnson, Scott Co. Vice-President U. S, 

HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS, AND OFFICERS 
U. S. GOVERNMENT. 
John Breckenridge, Fayette Co. Att. Gen. U. S. 
Henry Clay, Lexington, Sec. of State U. S. 



Min. to France, 
Min. to Spain. 
Charge to Central Am. 
Min. to Mexico. 
Charge to Bogota, S. A. 
Charge to Bogota. 
Charge to Mexico. 
Min. PI, Texas to U.S. 



143 



Names. 
Wm. T. Barry, 
Amos Kendall, 
Robert Johnson, 
James Boyle, 
Gen. Croghan, 
Gen. Jesup, 
D. M'Reynolds, 
John M'Lean, 



From whence. 
Lexington, 
Franklin Co. 
Franklin Co. 
Russellville, 
Jefferson Co. 
Fayette Co. 
Russellville, 
Mason Co. 



Where stationed. 
Post M. Gen. U. S. 
Post M. Gen. U. S. 
Assist. P. M. Gen. U. S. 
Maj. Gen. U. S. A. 
Maj. Gen. U. S. A. 
Maj. Gen. U. S. A. 
Surg. Gen. U. S. N. 
Post M. Gen. U. S. 



JUDGES U. S. OR OTHER HIGH COURTS. 



John M'Lean, 
C. W. Bird, 
Judge Lewis, 
Francis L. Turner, 
Joseph E. Davis, 
E. Turner, 
Thomas P. Davis, 
B. Johnson, 
N. Pope, 
Henry Humphreys, 



Mason Co. 
Fayette Co. 
Jessamine Co. 
Fayette Co. 
Logan Co. 
Fayette Co. 
Madison Co. 
Scott Co. 
Jefferson Co. 
Lexington, 



Supreme Court U. S. 
U. S. Judge, Ohio. 
Sup. Ct. Louisiana. 
Sup. Ct. Louisiana. 
Sup. Ct. Mississippi. 
Sup. Ct. Mississippi. 
U. S. Judge, Indiana. 
U. S. Judge, Arkansas. 
U. S. Judge, Illinois. 
Supreme Ct. Texas. 



U. S. SENATORS. 



Thomas Reed, 
James Brown, 
John M'Lean, 
Dr. Linn. 



Mercer Co. 
Lexington, 
Logan Co. 
Jefferson Co. 



From Missouri. 
From Louisiana. 
From Illinois. 
From Missouri 



144 



Names. 



From whence. 



Mr. Robinson, Scott Co. 

J. Norvell, Lexington, 

(Not recollected,) Jefferson Co. 



Where stationed. 

From Illinois. 
From Michigan. 
From Missouri. 



To the foregoing we may add, as bear- 
ing on the subject — 

PRESIDENTS OF COLLEGES. 
Robt. G. Wilson, Mason Co. Pr. Univ. Athens, O. 
Lexington, 
Lexington, 
Augusta, 
Danville, 



Robt. H. Bishop, 

James Blythe, 

John P. Durbin, 

David Nelson, 

John Chamberlain, DanvillC; 

William M'Guffie, Paris, 



Pr. Univ. Oxford, O. 

Pr. S. Hanover C. la. 

Pr. Dickinson C. Pa. 

Pr. Theol. Sem. 111. 

Pr. Oakland C. Miss. 

Pr. Cincinnati C. O. 



SUMMARY. 

Governors and Lieutenant-Governors, 

Vice-President U. S. 

Ambassadors, Foreign Ministers, &c. 
Heads of Departments, and U. S. Officers, 
Judges U. S. or other High Courts, - 
U. S. Senators, 



To which add. Presidents of Colleges, 



145 

; _Mhe foregoing list does not profess to be 
complete ; and many names are doubtless 
omitted, through inadvertence, that deserve 
a place. As for representatives to Congress, 
military officers, clerks of courts, secreta- 
ries of state, and other State officers, post- 
masters, &c. &c. they are very numerous, 
but have been omitted as not sufficiently 
prominent. Enough has been presented to 
justify the strong language that has been 
used, and to show the widely extended 
influence wielded by the State of Ken- 
tucky. *' The breed of noble bloods," it 
is believed, is not extinct ; and should 
further demands be made, it is not impro- 
bable that she may spare a few more of 
her gifted sons for the cabinet, the forum, 
the pulpit, the chair, or the camp. 

Till lately Kentucky indulged the hope 
of adding another and still prouder honour 
to those she already bears, in giving a 
President to the Union. Of the disap- 
pointment of this expectation, or of its 
causes, this is not the place, nor are we 
the persons, to speak. Nevertheless, with- 
13 



146 

out plucking a single laurel from another's 
brow, a passing tribute may be permitted 
to one whom Kentucky delights to honour, 
and whose name, not confined to his native 
shores, is known over the globe. The 
more gladly do I pay this tribute, because 
none can now suspect the slightest sinister 
design of political craft. Others, with 
even more than Persian prostration, may 
worship the rising sun; to me there is 
something inexpressibly more touching in 
the calm majesty of his setting orb. 
Memory recalls the hours once enlivened 
by his meridian blaze, and imparts to his 
retiring radiance a new and deeper in- 
terest. 

It has been said that the Roman prince 
who lamented a lost day, " had been an 
emperor without his crown." It is a beau- 
tiful observation ; but there is a saying of 
the American senator that is no less me- 
morable, and which, I have no doubt, will 
be taught hereafter by mothers to their 
sons. It was uttered at a time when the 
Union was convulsed by an extremely 



147 

agitating question, and patriots trembled 
to think of the future. Meditating an im- 
portant step at that critical juncture, this 
judicious statesman admitted a distinguish- 
ed friend into his counsels. That gentle- 
man very plainly suggested the unfavoura- 
ble influence such a step might have on 
his political prospects. The answer was 
worthy of a noble Roman in Rome's best 
days. " I did not send for you to ask 
what might be the effect of the proposed 
movement on my prospects, but whether it 
was right. I had rather be right than 
BE President." 

The man who could breathe that senti- 
ment, needs no pomp of titles to adorn his 
brow. No station, however exalted, could 
possibly reflect more honour upon him, 
than he would reflect upon it. His is a 
greatness independent of circumstances, 
towering above the competition of rank 
and place. By that memorable sentiment, 
he shows himself allied to the truly great 
of all ages and of all climes, those chosen 
spirits whom Providence occasionally, but 



148 

with sparing hand, gives to the world, as 
specimens of a sublime and magnanimous 
virtue. 

Go then, illustrious man! claim kindred 
with that select fraternity of self-sacrificing 
and incorruptible statesmen, those great- 
souled few, who form the very elite of the 
generations of earth; — go, secure of jus- 
tice at the hands of posterity, when the 
strife and emulations of the day shall have 
been forgotten. The measure of thy fame 
is full ; thou hast risen above the point to 
which vulgar ambition aspires, and where 
its largest wishes are satisfied. Hence- 
forth men shall speak of thee as they 
speak of the mighty dead ; and own a 
magic beyond all titled pomp, in the simple 
and unadorned name of Henry Clay. 



THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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